Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense
AV AC PR UI S C I A CVSS EPSS %ile KEV
N L N N U H H N 9.1 .2158 97.4 YES
AFFECTED
Product Versions Fixed
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.8.1 – —
Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software 6.2.3 – —
TIMELINE
Oct 27 Reserved by cisco
Sep 13 Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2023-10-04
Sep 13 Published (CNA: cisco)
Aug 11 RESCORED — CVE-2023-20269 (Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software). CVSS 5 → 9.1 (NVD).
Description
A vulnerability in the remote access VPN feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a brute force attack in an attempt to identify valid username and password combinations or an authenticated, remote attacker to establish a clientless SSL VPN session with an unauthorized user.
This vulnerability is due to improper separation of authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) between the remote access VPN feature and the HTTPS management and site-to-site VPN features. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by specifying a default connection profile/tunnel group while conducting a brute force attack or while establishing a clientless SSL VPN session using valid credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to achieve one or both of the following:
Identify valid credentials that could then be used to establish an unauthorized remote access VPN session.
Establish a clientless SSL VPN session (only when running Cisco ASA Software Release 9.16 or earlier).
Notes:
Establishing a client-based remote access VPN tunnel is not possible as these default connection profiles/tunnel groups do not and cannot have an IP address pool configured.
This vulnerability does not allow an attacker to bypass authentication. To successfully establish a remote access VPN session, valid credentials are required, including a valid second factor if multi-factor authentication (MFA) is configured.
Cisco will release software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.
Lifecycle
Complete event history — 4 events, chronological
| Date | Event | Detail |
|---|
| October 27, 2022 | Reserved | Reserved by cisco |
| September 13, 2023 | KEV ADDED | Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2023-10-04 |
| September 13, 2023 | Published | Published (CNA: cisco) |
| August 11, 2026 | RESCORED | RESCORED — CVE-2023-20269 (Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software). CVSS 5 → 9.1 (NVD). |
Affected
Affected products and packages — 2 rows
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
|---|
| Cisco | Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software | — | 9.8.1 | — |
| Cisco | Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software | — | 6.2.3 | — |
About this page
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2023-20269 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 Wednesday, August 19, 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.