Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance SSH Partial Private Key Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-20009 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | cisco |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-03-04 18:16:14 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-04-16 20:13:12 UTC |
| Description | A vulnerability in the implementation of the proprietary SSH stack with SSH key-based authentication in Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to a Cisco Secure Firewall ASA device and execute commands as a specific user. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user input during the SSH authentication phase. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input during SSH authentication to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the device as a specific user without the private SSH key of that user. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must possess a valid username and the associated public key. The private key is not required. Notes: Exploitation of this vulnerability does not provide the attacker with root access. The authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) configuration command auto-enable is not affected by this vulnerability. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.3 MEDIUM from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Problem Types: CWE-138 | CWE-138 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Primary | 5.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSSV3_1 | 5.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
LowIntegrity
NoneAvailability
NoneCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version | Update | Edition | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Cisco | Adaptive Security Appliance Software | All | All | All | All |
Vendor Declared Affected Products
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asa-ss... | [email protected] | sec.cloudapps.cisco.com | Vendor Advisory |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
Additional Advisory Data
Exploits
CNA: The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.