CVE-2023-20198: Cisco IOS XE Web UI vulnerability

1. In CISA KEVCISA KEV catalogue16 Oct 2023
2. Exploited (reported): not seen
3. Scanning observedSANS ISC, via SANS ISC5 Nov
4. Proof of concept public36 public GitHub repositories (unverified), listed by PoC-in-GitHub17 Oct 2023
5. Not established: not seen

DescriptionNVD

Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.

1. 5 Nov
   SANS ISC reported scanning, via SANS ISC SANS ISC
2. 17 Oct 2023
   PoC-in-GitHub lists 36 public GitHub repositories (unverified) PoC-in-GitHub
3. 16 Oct 2023
   CISA added it to the KEV catalogue CISA

• NVD entrynvd.nist.gov
• CISA KEV cataloguecisa.gov
• Vendor advisorysec.cloudapps.cisco.com
• CVE recordcve.org