CVE-2024-20268

7.7 HIGH

📋 TL;DR

A vulnerability in Cisco ASA and FTD software allows authenticated remote attackers to cause denial of service by sending crafted SNMP packets. The insufficient input validation in SNMP feature enables attackers to trigger device reloads. This affects all SNMP versions (1, 2c, 3) and requires valid SNMP credentials.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:
  • Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
  • Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software
Versions: All versions with SNMP enabled
Operating Systems: Cisco ASA OS, Cisco FTD OS
Default Config Vulnerable: ✅ No
Notes: Only vulnerable when SNMP is enabled and configured. Default configurations typically have SNMP disabled.

📦 What is this software?

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Complete network outage due to firewall device reload, disrupting all traffic through the affected device

🟠

Likely Case

Temporary service disruption during device reload, potentially causing brief network downtime

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact if SNMP access is properly restricted and monitored

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH if SNMP is exposed to internet with valid credentials
🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM as it requires authenticated access but could be exploited by compromised internal systems

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No
Weaponized: UNKNOWN
Unauthenticated Exploit: ✅ No
Complexity: LOW

Exploitation requires valid SNMP community string or SNMPv3 credentials. Attack is straightforward once credentials are obtained.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Check Cisco advisory for specific fixed versions per platform

Vendor Advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-snmp-dos-7TcnzxTU

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Check Cisco advisory for fixed versions. 2. Download appropriate software update. 3. Apply update following Cisco upgrade procedures. 4. Reboot device after update.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable SNMP

all

Completely disable SNMP service on affected devices

no snmp-server enable

Restrict SNMP Access

all

Limit SNMP access to trusted management networks only

snmp-server community [community-string] RO [access-list-name]

🧯 If You Can't Patch

  • Disable SNMP entirely if not required for monitoring
  • Implement strict network access controls to limit SNMP traffic to trusted management hosts only

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check if SNMP is enabled: 'show running-config | include snmp-server'

Check Version:

show version | include Version

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify software version is patched: 'show version' and check against Cisco advisory

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

  • Unexpected device reloads
  • SNMP authentication failures
  • Multiple SNMP requests from single source

Network Indicators:

  • SNMP traffic to firewall devices from unexpected sources
  • Spike in SNMP request volume

SIEM Query:

source_port:161 AND (device_type:cisco_asa OR device_type:cisco_ftd) AND event_count > threshold

🔗 References

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