🔐 CVE Alert

CVE-2023-20198

CRITICAL 10.0 ⚠️ CISA KEV
CVSS Score
10.0
EPSS Score
0.0%
EPSS Percentile
0th

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.

CWE CWE-420
Vendor cisco
Product cisco ios xe software
Ecosystems
Industries
NetworkingTelecommunications
Published Oct 16, 2023
Last Updated Oct 21, 2025
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CVSS v3 Breakdown

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Affected Versions

Cisco / Cisco IOS XE Software
16.1.1 16.1.2 16.1.3 16.2.1 16.2.2 16.3.1 16.3.2 16.3.3 16.3.1a 16.3.4 16.3.5 16.3.5b 16.3.6 16.3.7 16.3.8 16.3.9 16.3.10 16.3.11 16.4.1 16.4.2 16.4.3 16.5.1 16.5.1a 16.5.1b 16.5.2 16.5.3 16.6.1 16.6.2 16.6.3 16.6.4 16.6.5 16.6.4a 16.6.5a 16.6.6 16.6.7 16.6.8 16.6.9 16.6.10 16.7.1 16.7.1a 16.7.1b 16.7.2 16.7.3 16.7.4 16.8.1 16.8.1a 16.8.1b 16.8.1s 16.8.1c 16.8.1d 16.8.2 16.8.1e 16.8.3 16.9.1 16.9.2 16.9.1a 16.9.1b 16.9.1s 16.9.3 16.9.4 16.9.3a 16.9.5 16.9.5f 16.9.6 16.9.7 16.9.8 16.10.1 16.10.1a 16.10.1b 16.10.1s 16.10.1c 16.10.1e 16.10.1d 16.10.2 16.10.1f 16.10.1g 16.10.3 16.11.1 16.11.1a 16.11.1b 16.11.2 16.11.1s 16.12.1 16.12.1s 16.12.1a 16.12.1c 16.12.1w 16.12.2 16.12.1y 16.12.2a 16.12.3 16.12.8 16.12.2s 16.12.1x 16.12.1t 16.12.4 16.12.3s 16.12.3a 16.12.4a 16.12.5 16.12.6 16.12.1z1 16.12.5a 16.12.5b 16.12.1z2 16.12.6a 16.12.7 16.12.9 16.12.10 17.1.1 17.1.1a 17.1.1s 17.1.1t 17.1.3 17.2.1 17.2.1r 17.2.1a 17.2.1v 17.2.2 17.2.3 17.3.1 17.3.2 17.3.3 17.3.1a 17.3.1w 17.3.2a 17.3.1x 17.3.1z 17.3.4 17.3.5 17.3.4a 17.3.6 17.3.4b 17.3.4c 17.3.5a 17.3.5b 17.3.7 17.3.8 17.4.1 17.4.2 17.4.1a 17.4.1b 17.4.2a 17.5.1 17.5.1a 17.5.1b 17.5.1c 17.6.1 17.6.2 17.6.1w 17.6.1a 17.6.1x 17.6.3 17.6.1y 17.6.1z 17.6.3a 17.6.4 17.6.1z1 17.6.5 17.6.6 17.7.1 17.7.1a 17.7.1b 17.7.2 17.10.1 17.10.1a 17.10.1b 17.8.1 17.8.1a 17.9.1 17.9.1w 17.9.2 17.9.1a 17.9.1x 17.9.1y 17.9.3 17.9.2a 17.9.1x1 17.9.3a 17.9.4 17.9.1y1 17.11.1 17.11.1a 17.12.1 17.12.1a 17.11.99SW

References

NVD ↗ CVE.org ↗ EPSS Data ↗
sec.cloudapps.cisco.com: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-webui-privesc-j22SaA4z cisa.gov: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-20198