CVE-2023-20246 [Medium] | Security Bypass in Snort

Multiple Cisco products are affected by a vulnerability in Snort access control policies that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass the configured policies on an affected system. This vulnerability is due to a logic error that occurs when the access control policies are being populated. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by establishing a connection to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass configured access control rules on the affected system.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.07%	0.56%	+0.49%
2	2025-11-21	0.36%	0.07%	-0.30%
3	2025-11-18	—	0.36%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.07%

0.56%

+0.49%

2025-11-21

0.36%

0.07%

-0.30%

2025-11-18

—

0.36%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.8	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N` 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:L) Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	3.9	1.4	[email protected]
5.3	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N` 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:L) Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	3.9	1.4	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.8

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N 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:L): Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

3.9

1.4

[email protected]

5.3

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N 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:L): Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

3.9

1.4

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-20246

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	—	CVE-2023-20246: 1 source package rows (snort); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 7.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-20246
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-20246 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (snort), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 1, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-20246

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20246

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
snort	snort	>= 3.0.0, < 3.1.57.0	cpe:2.3:a:snort:snort::::::::
cisco	firepower_threat_defense	>= 7.0.0, <= 7.3.1.1	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:firepower_threat_defense::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.12, < 17.12.2	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::

References for CVE-2023-20246

URL	Tags
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-snort3acp-bypass-3bdR2BEh	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-20246

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20246

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20246

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20246

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-20246

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20246

References for CVE-2023-20246