CVE-2022-20767 | Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software DNS Enforcement Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the Snort rule evaluation function of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper handling of the DNS reputation enforcement rule. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted UDP packets through an affected device to force a buildup of UDP connections. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause traffic that is going through the affected device to be dropped, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: This vulnerability only affects Cisco FTD devices that are running Snort 3.

Published: 2022-05-03 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-20767 is rated Moderate Risk (61.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.35%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-20767

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 2025-11-21 2.14% 1.35% -0.79%
2 2025-11-18 1.35% 2.14% +0.79%
3 2025-05-12 1.35%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-20767

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 4.0 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.8 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
10.0 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-20767

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-20767

vendor priority summary link
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-20767 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (snort), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, focal, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8, ignored 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-20767

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-20767

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco firepower_threat_defense < 7.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:firepower_threat_defense:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco firepower_threat_defense 7.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:firepower_threat_defense:7.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-20767

cvelogic Threat Intelligence