Exploited

CVE-2024-20359

Cisco ASA / Firepower (FTD) · Firewalls, VPNs and remote access

Cisco ASA and FTD Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

At a glance

Exploited. Added to CISA’s catalog of exploited vulnerabilities on April 24, 2024.

Affected product: Cisco ASA / Firepower (FTD) (category Firewalls, VPNs and remote access, indicative classification). Name in CISA’s catalog: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD).

What should I do?

Apply the patches or mitigations from Cisco; if none are available, stop using the product.

Deadline set by CISA for US federal agencies: 7 days (due May 1, 2024). It only binds those agencies, but it is a useful measure of urgency.

Cisco security advisories page (general page, not the advisory for this vulnerability)
The vendor’s specific advisory is listed in the NVD references: CVE-2024-20359 on the NVD website.

Original text of the required action (CISA)

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Timeline

April 24, 2024 Vulnerability published Publication date (NVD)
April 24, 2024 Exploitation confirmed Added to CISA’s KEV catalog
May 1, 2024 CISA deadline Remediation deadline set for US federal agencies

The facts, with their sources

Exploitation confirmed: Yes, on April 24, 2024 Date added to the catalog of exploited vulnerabilities. Exploitation itself may have started earlier. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
Ransomware: No known use to date That does not guarantee it is not being used: the information is not public. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
Hunt for compromise: Not requested by CISA Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
CISA required action: Apply the patches or mitigations from Cisco; if none are available, stop using the product. Rewritten by this site from CISA’s original text. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
CISA deadline: May 1, 2024, 7 days Set for US federal agencies: a measure of urgency, not an obligation elsewhere. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
Vulnerability published: April 24, 2024 Source: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), collected September 29, 2026 at 15:00 UTC
Product according to CISA: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Filed by this site under “Firewalls, VPNs and remote access” (indicative classification). Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Technical detail of the score: attack vector, complexity, impact. Source: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), collected September 29, 2026 at 15:00 UTC

Severity and activity

6.0 / 10 CVSS severity: medium

Score from the NVD. Collected Sep 29, 2026.

— Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS)

FIRST’s EPSS model. Since exploitation is already confirmed, this figure is mostly useful to compare activity. Collected Sep 29, 2026.

Description

A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plug-ins and that has been available in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary code with root-level privileges. Administrator-level privileges are required to exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of a file when it is read from system flash memory. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by copying a crafted file to the disk0: file system of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device after the next reload of the device, which could alter system behavior. Because the injected code could persist across device reboots, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) contain a privilege escalation vulnerability that can allow local privilege escalation from Administrator to root.

Summary from CISA (KEV catalog).

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2024-ALE-007: Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits Cisco (updated July 1, 2024)

Information reused under the Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab); the date of last update is shown for each advisory. This site is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by ANSSI.

Sources for this page

CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, required action, deadline, ransomware.
NVD (NIST): CVSS severity, publication date, description, vendor references.
EPSS (FIRST): probability of exploitation.
CERT-FR: advisories and alerts (in French).
Brand and category: indicative classification by this site (method).