CVE-2022-20871 | Cisco Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco AsyncOS for Cisco Secure Web Appliance, formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA), could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform a command injection and elevate privileges to root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input for the web interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the system and sending a crafted HTTP packet to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need at least read-only credentials.Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.Attention: Simplifying the Cisco portfolio includes the renaming of security products under one brand: Cisco Secure. For more information, see .

Published: 2024-11-15 Last update: 2025-08-11 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-20871 is rated Moderate Risk (40/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). 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-2022-20871

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 2025-12-24 0.30% 0.20% -0.09%
2 2025-10-18 0.41% 0.30% -0.11%
3 2025-09-27 — 0.41% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-20871

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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: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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 2.8 3.4 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-20871

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-20871

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco asyncos 12.5.1-011 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.1-011:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 12.5.2-007 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.2-007:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 12.5.2-011 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.2-011:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 12.5.3-002 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.3-002:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 12.5.4-005 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.4-005:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 12.5.4-011 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:12.5.4-011:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 14.0.2-012 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:14.0.2-012:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 14.1.0-032 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:14.1.0-032:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 14.1.0-041 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:14.1.0-041:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 14.1.0-047 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:14.1.0-047:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco asyncos 14.5.0-498 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asyncos:14.5.0-498:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-20871

cvelogic Threat Intelligence