CVE-2023-20075 [Medium] | Code Injection in Email Security Appliance

Vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Secure Email Gateway could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands. These vulnerability is due to improper input validation in the CLI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by injecting operating system commands into a legitimate command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to escape the restricted command prompt and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need valid Administrator credentials.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.09%	0.36%	+0.27%
2	2026-04-16	0.20%	0.09%	-0.10%
3	2026-03-02	—	0.20%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.09%

0.36%

+0.27%

2026-04-16

0.20%

0.09%

-0.10%

2026-03-02

—

0.20%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.0	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:H) They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off. 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:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	0.8	5.2	[email protected]
6.7	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H) They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off. 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.	0.8	5.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.0

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:H): They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

0.8

5.2

[email protected]

6.7

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H): They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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.

0.8

5.9

[email protected]

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20075

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
cisco	email_security_appliance	>= 12.5.0, < 12.5.3-041	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:email_security_appliance::::::::
cisco	email_security_appliance	>= 13.0.0, < 13.0.5-007	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:email_security_appliance::::::::
cisco	email_security_appliance	>= 13.5.0, < 13.5.4-038	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:email_security_appliance::::::::
cisco	email_security_appliance	>= 14.0.0, < 14.2.1-020	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:email_security_appliance::::::::
cisco	email_security_appliance	>= 14.3.0, < 14.3.0-032	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:email_security_appliance::::::::

References for CVE-2023-20075

URL	Tags
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-esa-sma-privesc-9DVkFpJ8	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-20075

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20075

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20075

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20075

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20075

References for CVE-2023-20075