Skip to content
EXYS
Back to the CVEs

CVE-2023-20198

10, critical Known exploited

Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

NVD (opens in a new tab) CVE.org (opens in a new tab) CISA KEV catalogue (opens in a new tab)
CVSS
10, critical critical CVSS v3.1
EPSS, next 30 days
100% higher than 99.9% of scored CVEs
Exploitation
Confirmed in the wild
Published
16 Oct 20233 years ago

Known exploited

CISA added this to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog on 16 Oct 2023. US federal agencies had to remediate by 20 Oct 2023, a deadline that has passed.

Required action. Verify that instances of Cisco IOS XE Web UI are in compliance with BOD 23-02 and apply mitigations per vendor instructions. For affected products (Cisco IOS XE Web UI exposed to the internet or to untrusted networks), follow vendor instructions to determine if a system may have been compromised and immediately report positive findings to CISA.

Description

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.

Details

Vendor
Cisco
Product
Cisco IOS XE Software
Weakness
CWE-420 (opens in a new tab)
Status
Analyzed
Updated
17 Jun 2026
Assigner
psirt@cisco.com

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

References 2

Advisories 1

Other references 1

The kind is read from NVD's tags where present and from the shape of the URL otherwise, so treat it as a hint.

Other Cisco CVEs

Every Cisco CVE we hold

Same vendor in what we hold, not a known link between the flaws.

  • CVE-2026-76519 Cisco Secure Email Gateway Relative Path Traversal Vulnerability KEV EPSS 2% 9.8, critical
  • CVE-2026-76504 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Hex Encoding Vulnerability KEV EPSS 2% 9.8, critical
  • CVE-2026-76460 Cisco Identity Services Engine Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs Vulnerability KEV EPSS 14% 10, critical
  • CVE-2026-76461 Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability KEV EPSS 30% 9.8, critical
  • CVE-2026-20349 Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Heap Inspection Vulnerability KEV EPSS 1% 8.6, high
  • CVE-2026-20316 Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password Vulnerability KEV EPSS 35% 5.3, medium
  • CVE-2026-20262 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Directory or Path Traversal Vulnerability KEV EPSS 28% 6.5, medium
  • CVE-2026-20245 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output Vulnerability KEV EPSS 25% 7.8, high

Beyond this page

Is CVE-2023-20198 in your network?

This page tells you how dangerous CVE-2023-20198 is out there. Whether it sits on one of your devices, only a scan of your own network can tell. That is what our systems do, every day, for the companies we protect.

CVE-2023-20198 is in the CISA catalogue of exploited vulnerabilities: attackers are already exploiting it.

  • EXYS7600 OCELOT

    Find it before attackers do

    Ocelot scans your network on a schedule and reports every vulnerability it finds by its CVE identifier, with its CVSS score and how many of your hosts are affected. A finding like CVE-2023-20198 comes with the devices to patch.

    Learn more about EXYS7600 OCELOT

  • EXYS7950 KONDRA

    Detect it if it's exploited

    Until the patch is applied, Kondra monitors your network, events and endpoints in real time. It keeps an inventory of the software installed on every endpoint, and its anomaly detection rules flag what an attacker does once inside.

    Learn more about EXYS7950 KONDRA
Check your exposure

Assembled from the NVD 2.0 API, the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog and FIRST EPSS. Scores are as of our last collection on 16 Oct 2026, not the live upstream state.