$ cve CVE-2023-20198 JSON

CVE-2023-20198 KEV

10.0

CRITICAL · CVSS 3.1 · EPSS 99.6% (pctl 100)

Patch first

On CISA KEV — known exploited in the wild, due 2023-10-20.

Description

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.

Scoring

CVSS	10.0 (CRITICAL, v3.1)
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS	99.57% — more likely to be exploited than 100% of all CVEs
Weakness	CWE-420
On CISA KEV	yes — remediate by 2023-10-20
Public exploit	none known
Published	2023-10-16
Last modified	2026-06-17

CISA KEV

Name	Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Added	2023-10-16
Due	2023-10-20
Vendor / product	Cisco / IOS XE Web UI
Ransomware use	none reported

Affected (5)

Vendor	Product
cisco	ios xe
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5200
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5200 firmware
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5800
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5800 firmware

References

→ the Explorer · watch your stack · NVD