CVE-2023-20198
Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We…
- 10.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 99.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.1% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 16 Oct 2023
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
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.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability.
- Added
- 16 Oct 2023
- Fix due (US federal)
- 20 Oct 2023
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
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.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 16 Oct 2023.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list 3 Metasploit modules and a Nuclei template for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules3 modules
- Cisco IOX XE unauthenticated Command Line Interface (CLI) execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_cli_exec_cve_2023_20198Rank normaldisclosed 16 Oct 2023
- Cisco IOX XE unauthenticated OS command execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_os_exec_cve_2023_20273Rank normaldisclosed 16 Oct 2023
- Cisco IOX XE Unauthenticated RCE Chain (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/misc/cisco_ios_xe_rceRank excellentdisclosed 16 Oct 2023
Nuclei templates1 template
- Cisco IOS XE Web UI - Command Injection (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-20198.yamlSeverity critical
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By cisco
- 12 months later
· 12 months later
Published
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 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 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 99.8% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Affected products
- affected 16.1.1
- affected 16.1.2
- affected 16.1.3
- affected 16.2.1
- affected 16.2.2
- affected 16.3.1
- affected 16.3.2
- affected 16.3.3
- affected 16.3.1a
- affected 16.3.4
- affected 16.3.5
- affected 16.3.5b
- affected 16.3.6
- affected 16.3.7
- affected 16.3.8
- affected 16.3.9
- affected 16.3.10
- affected 16.3.11
- affected 16.4.1
- affected 16.4.2
- affected 16.4.3
- affected 16.5.1
- affected 16.5.1a
- affected 16.5.1b
- affected 16.5.2
- affected 16.5.3
- affected 16.6.1
- affected 16.6.2
- affected 16.6.3
- affected 16.6.4
- affected 16.6.5
- affected 16.6.4a
- affected 16.6.5a
- affected 16.6.6
- affected 16.6.7
- affected 16.6.8
- affected 16.6.9
- affected 16.6.10
- affected 16.7.1
- affected 16.7.1a
- and 146 more
What to do
Exploitation: Cisco is aware of active exploitation of these vulnerabilities.
References
References2
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)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-24377 (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-2023-20198)Record last updated .