CVE-2020-3153 | Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows Uncontrolled Search Path Vulnerability

Exp

A vulnerability in the installer component of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows could allow an authenticated local attacker to copy user-supplied files to system level directories with system level privileges. The vulnerability is due to the incorrect handling of directory paths. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious file and copying the file to a system directory. An exploit could allow the attacker to copy malicious files to arbitrary locations with system level privileges. This could include DLL pre-loading, DLL hijacking, and other related attacks. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs valid credentials on the Windows system.

Published: 2020-02-19 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-3153 is rated Critical Active Threat (88.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 28.31%, 98th percentile). Core evidence: CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-10-24) affecting Cisco / AnyConnect Secure. a weakness (CWE-427) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +3.22% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2020-3153

Name: Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows Uncontrolled Search Path Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-10-24

Action due: 2022-11-14

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-3153

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
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Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-3153

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 25.09% 28.31% +3.22%
2 2025-12-11 28.35% 25.09% -3.26%
3 2025-11-21 28.35%

Full EPSS history (26 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-3153

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.0 4.0 [email protected]
6.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.0 4.0 [email protected]
4.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
3.9 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-3153

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-3153

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco anyconnect_secure_mobility_client < 4.8.02042 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:anyconnect_secure_mobility_client:*:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*

References for CVE-2020-3153

cvelogic Threat Intelligence