Secure Email and Web
CVE-2022-20871: Cisco Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco AsyncOS for Cisco Secure Web Appliance, formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA), could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform a command injection and elevate privileges to root.
Published
Automatic summary from the vendor's CVE record. We haven't written a full analysis of this vulnerability yet.
Affected and fixed versions
| Product / branch | Fixed in |
|---|---|
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 14.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 14.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 14.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 14.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 14.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Web Appliance 12.5 | See the advisory |
Always confirm against the vendor advisory, which lists every fixed hotfix.
What it is
A vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco AsyncOS for Cisco Secure Web Appliance, formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA), could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform a command injection and elevate privileges to root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input for the web interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the system and sending a crafted HTTP packet to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need at least read-only credentials.Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.Attention: Simplifying the Cisco portfolio includes the renaming of security products under one brand: Cisco Secure. For more information, see .
Exploitation
The Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.
Sources
KEV status, EPSS score and vendor data refreshed automatically, last on 11 Oct 2026.