Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
AV AC PR UI S C I A CVSS EPSS %ile KEV N L N N C H H H 10.0 .9957 99.9 YES
AFFECTED Product Versions Fixed Cisco IOS XE Software 16.1.1 – —
TIMELINE Oct 27 Reserved by cisco Oct 16 Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2023-10-20 Oct 16 Published (CNA: cisco)
Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.
| Date | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| October 27, 2022 | Reserved | Reserved by cisco |
| October 16, 2023 | KEV ADDED | Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2023-10-20 |
| October 16, 2023 | Published | Published (CNA: cisco) |
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco | Cisco IOS XE Software | — | 16.1.1 | — |
Authoritative record: CVE-2023-20198 at cve.org
Vendors: cisco
Weaknesses: CWE-420
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2023-20198 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.
