CVE-2023-20056 [Medium] | Command Injection in Wireless Lan Controller S…

A vulnerability in the management CLI of Cisco access point (AP) software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of commands supplied by the user. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to a device and submitting crafted input to the affected command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause an affected device to reload spontaneously, resulting in a DoS condition.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-05-16	0.35%	0.24%	-0.10%
2	2026-04-01	0.24%	0.35%	+0.11%
3	2026-03-31	—	0.24%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-05-16

0.35%

0.24%

-0.10%

2026-04-01

0.24%

0.35%

+0.11%

2026-03-31

—

0.24%

—

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:N/A:H` 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: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.	2.0	4.0	[email protected]
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` 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: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.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]

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:N/A:H 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: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.

2.0

4.0

[email protected]

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20056

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
cisco	wireless_lan_controller_software	< 8.10.183.0	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:wireless_lan_controller_software::::::::
cisco	aironet_access_point_software	< 17.9.0.135	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:aironet_access_point_software::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	< 16.12.8	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.1, < 17.3.6	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.4, < 17.6.5	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.7, < 17.9.2	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::

References for CVE-2023-20056

URL	Tags
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ap-cli-dos-tc2EKEpu	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-20056 | Cisco Access Point Software Denial of Service Vulnerability

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20056

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20056

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20056

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20056

References for CVE-2023-20056