Exploited· due 2022-11-146.5mediumMediumused in ransomware

CVE-2020-3153

Cisco Anyconnect Secure Mobility Client

A vulnerability in the installer component of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows could allow an authenticated local attacker to copy user-supplied files to system level directories with system level privileges. The vulnerability is due to the incorrect handling of directory paths. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious file and copying the file to a system directory. An exploit could allow the attacker to copy malicious files to arbitrary locations with system level privileges. This could include DLL pre-loading, DLL hijacking, and other related attacks. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs valid credentials on the Windows system.

Exploitation status

CISA has confirmed this is being exploited in the wild. That is an observation of real attacks, not a prediction.
It is known to have been used in ransomware campaigns.
US federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it by 2022-11-14. That deadline does not bind private companies, but it is a reasonable benchmark for how urgently CISA views it.
A vendor advisory or patch reference has been published.

Required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

CISA’s wording, unedited.

What the metrics mean

It is requires local access to the machine.
For an attacker who can reach it, no special conditions are needed to exploit it.
To exploit it, an ordinary user account is needed.
Beyond that, no action by a user is required.

Scoring

CVSS: 6.5 (v3.1)
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
Weakness: CWE-427
Assigned by: psirt@cisco.com

Dates

Published: 2020-02-19
Last modified: 2026-08-12
Added to KEV: 2022-10-24
Remediation due: 2022-11-14
Sources: CISA KEV, NVD

Affected products

Cisco Anyconnect Secure Mobility Client- 4.8.02042

As listed in the NVD configuration data. Not a statement about your estate.