Exploited· due 2022-11-147.8highHighused in ransomware

CVE-2020-3433

Cisco Anyconnect Secure Mobility Client

A vulnerability in the interprocess communication (IPC) channel of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows could allow an authenticated, local attacker to perform a DLL hijacking attack. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have valid credentials on the Windows system. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of resources that are loaded by the application at run time. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted IPC message to the AnyConnect process. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected machine with SYSTEM privileges. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have 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
7.8 (v3.1)
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-427
Assigned by
psirt@cisco.com

Dates

Published
2020-08-17
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- 4.9.00086

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

References