CVE-2023-20273
Actively exploited. CVE-2023-20273 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-10-23) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2023-20273 is indexed in Metasploit and GitHub PoC. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
Cisco IOS XE contains a command injection vulnerability in the web user interface. When chained with CVE-2023-20198, the attacker can leverage the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco identified CVE-2023-20273 as the vulnerability exploited to deploy the implant. CVE-2021-1435, previously associated with the exploitation events, is no longer believed to be related to this activity.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- Cisco IOS XE contains a command injection vulnerability in the web user interface.
- Who is affected
- Deployments of Cisco IOS XE with the web UI enabled.
- Urgency
- Remediation is urgent as the vulnerability is actively exploited and is critical in severity.
- Action
- Apply the latest security updates to address this vulnerability.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 100% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2023-20273 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- MetasploitA Metasploit Framework module targets this CVE — weaponized, point-and-click exploitation.look it up ↗
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2023-20273: Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2023-10-23
External references
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