# CVE-2019-1945: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Smart Tunnel Vulnerabilities

> An authenticated local attacker can elevate privileges to root or load malicious libraries in Cisco ASA Smart Tunnel functionality.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 Aug 2019
- **Updated:** 20 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c5qc-f9f4-p3gm

## What is CVE-2019-1945?

CVE-2019-1945 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 7 Aug 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Multiple vulnerabilities in the smart tunnel functionality of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to the root user or load a malicious library file while the tunnel is being established. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this security advisory.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-1945?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-1945?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-1945 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-1945 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-1945 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software

- [CVE-2025-20333](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20333/): Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Buffer Overflow (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-6366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6366/): Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SNMP Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20349](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20349/): Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Heap Inspection (high 8.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-20353](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20353/): Cisco ASA and FTD Denial of Service (high 8.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-6367](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6367/): Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) CLI Remote Code Execution (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-1945 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-1945 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 7 Aug 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-1945 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1945/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1945/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-1945
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-1945
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-1945

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1945/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.