Background exploitation KEV catalog
CVE-2023-20273

Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject commands with the privileges of root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker could…

CheckOps priority index
7.5/10 Patch within 7 days
Severity7.2
Probability9.3
Exploitation3/5

Severity = CVSS. Probability = EPSS (FIRST). Exploitation = public signals: KEV, EUVD, ransomware, EPSS above 10 %, no account required.

EPSS · today 92.9% higher than 99.8% of CVEs
CVSS 3.1 7.2 AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:
Exploited for 1,107 days 23 Oct 2023
CISA due date 27 Oct 2023 for US federal agencies

Exploitation probability EPSS · FIRST

05010026 Sep05 Oct15 Oct24 Oct02 Nov
EPSS probability (%)Percentile among all CVEs

Exploitation signals 3 / 5

  • KEV catalog (CISA)23 Oct 2023
  • Exploited in EUVD (ENISA)23 Oct 2023
  • Used by ransomwareno
  • EPSS above 10 %92.9%
  • No account, over the networkno

What to do

Fix

Apply the vendor’s fix as soon as it is available.

CISA guidance: 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.

Meanwhile

Take the service off the internet or restrict access to it, watch the logs and look for signs of compromise.

Manufacturers (CRA)

Exploited vulnerability in your product: early warning to ENISA within 24 h, then notification within 72 h (Article 14 of the Cyber Resilience Act). The CRA explained

Description ENISA EUVD

A vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject commands with the privileges of root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input to the web UI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to inject commands to the underlying operating system with root privileges.

Affected products

Cisco IOS XE SoftwareCisco IOS XE Web UI
Affected versions
  • 17.1.1s
  • 16.1.1
  • 16.9.3a
  • 16.8.1c
  • 17.7.2
  • 17.2.1r
  • 17.9.1w
  • 17.3.7
  • 17.9.3
  • 17.10.1b
  • 16.12.1s
  • 16.10.1b
Weaknesses (CWE)

Open source packages OSV

Affected libraries according to OSV, with fixed versions.

Timeline

  1. Exploitation reported (ENISA)

  2. Added to the KEV catalog

  3. Published

  4. CISA remediation due date

  5. EPSS peak: 93.0%

References

Other exploited vulnerabilities from the same vendor

  • CVE-2026-76418Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Software and Cisco Secure FTD Software Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference Vulnerability
    5.3 · Rising fast
  • CVE-2026-76519Cisco Secure Email Gateway Relative Path Traversal Vulnerability
    5.8 · Rising fast
  • CVE-2026-76504Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Hex Encoding Vulnerability
    7.5 · Actively exploited
  • CVE-2026-76460Cisco Identity Services Engine Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs Vulnerability
    8.7 · Actively exploited
  • CVE-2026-76461Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability
    7.2 · Actively exploited
  • CVE-2026-20079Cisco Firewall Management Center Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel Vulnerability
    9.1 · Actively exploited

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Sources: CISA KEV · ENISA EUVD · FIRST EPSS · OSV. Public data aggregated by CheckOps, updated automatically. Source texts remain the property of their authors. All exploited vulnerabilities