CVE-2022-20866Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software RSA Private Key Leak Vulnerability
- 7.4HighCVSS base score
- 18.2%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 2.7% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
A vulnerability in the handling of RSA keys on devices running Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to retrieve an RSA private key. This vulnerability is due to a logic error when the RSA key is stored in memory on a hardware platform that performs hardware-based cryptography. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using a Lenstra side-channel attack against the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to retrieve the RSA private key. The following conditions may be observed on an affected device: This vulnerability will apply to approximately 5 percent of the RSA keys on a device that is running a vulnerable release of Cisco ASA Software or Cisco FTD Software; not all RSA keys are expected to be affected due to mathematical calculations applied to the RSA key. The RSA key could be valid but have specific characteristics that make it vulnerable to the potential leak of the RSA private key. If an attacker obtains the RSA private key, they could use the key to impersonate a device that is running Cisco ASA Software or Cisco FTD Software or to decrypt the device traffic. See the Indicators of Compromise section for more information on the detection of this type of RSA key. The RSA key could be malformed and invalid. A malformed RSA key is not functional, and a TLS client connection to a device that is running Cisco ASA Software or Cisco FTD Software that uses the malformed RSA key will result in a TLS signature failure, which means a vulnerable software release created an invalid RSA signature that failed verification. If an attacker obtains the RSA private key, they could use the key to impersonate a device that is running Cisco ASA Software or Cisco FTD Software or to decrypt the device traffic.
Timeline
ID reserved
By cisco
- 9 months later
· 9 months later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| ciscoCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 18.2% · top 2.7% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.4.
Affected products
Cisco · Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
- affected n/a
What to do
Exploitation: The Cisco PSIRT is aware of a public announcement of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.
References
References1
- 20220810 Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software RSA Private Key Leak Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCOx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2022-26116 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2022-20866)Record last updated .