Secure Email and Web
CVE-2023-20009: A vulnerability in the Web UI and administrative CLI of the Cisco Secure Email Gateway (ESA) and Cisco Secu…
A vulnerability in the Web UI and administrative CLI of the Cisco Secure Email Gateway (ESA) and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager (SMA) could allow an authenticated remote attacker and or authenticated local attacker to escalate their privilege level and gain root access.
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 Email 11.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 11.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 11.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 11.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 12.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 12.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 12.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 12.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 13.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 13.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 14.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email 14.2 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 11.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 11.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 11.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.5 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.6 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.8 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.0 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.1 | See the advisory |
| Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.2 | See the advisory |
Always confirm against the vendor advisory, which lists every fixed hotfix.
What it is
A vulnerability in the Web UI and administrative CLI of the Cisco Secure Email Gateway (ESA) and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager (SMA) could allow an authenticated remote attacker and or authenticated local attacker to escalate their privilege level and gain root access. The attacker has to have a valid user credential with at least a [[privilege of operator - validate actual name]]. The vulnerability is due to the processing of a specially crafted SNMP configuration file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the targeted device and uploading a specially crafted SNMP configuration file that when uploaded could allow for the execution of commands as root. An exploit could allow the attacker to gain root access on the device.
Exploitation
The Cisco PSIRT is aware that proof-of-concept exploit code is available for the vulnerabilities that are described in this advisory.
The Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any malicious use of the vulnerabilities that are described in this advisory.
Sources
KEV status, EPSS score and vendor data refreshed automatically, last on 11 Oct 2026.