Threats / Cisco / CVE-2020-3452
CVE-2020-3452
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat vulnerability
Cisco ASA and FTD contain an improper input validation vulnerability in HTTP request URL processing. Attackers can exploit directory traversal sequences to access arbitrary files in the web services filesystem.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A remote attacker can send crafted HTTP requests with directory traversal payloads to bypass path restrictions and read sensitive files from affected Cisco security appliances without authentication, enabling reconnaissance and credential theft.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
700 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99992 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Cisco, Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-20 Improper Input Validation.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft an HTTP request with directory traversal sequences targeting the web interface of a Cisco ASA or FTD device.
Business
Sensitive configuration files and credentials stored on the appliance become accessible to unauthenticated attackers.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I send the malicious request to the device's web services endpoint, bypassing input validation controls.
Business
The organization loses control over which files are exposed, risking disclosure of firewall rules, VPN configurations, and authentication data.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I retrieve arbitrary files from the web services filesystem to map the device configuration and identify further attack vectors.
Business
Attackers gain intelligence needed to compromise the perimeter security infrastructure and pivot into the internal network.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
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