# CVE-2020-3188: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Management Interface Denial of Service Vulnerability

> Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause a denial of service on the management interface by exploiting excessive session timeouts.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 May 2020
- **Updated:** 15 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-624j-v5v7-qjpg

## What is CVE-2020-3188?

CVE-2020-3188 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense, published on 6 May 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in how Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software handles session timeouts for management connections could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a buildup of remote management connections to an affected device, which could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the default session timeout period for specific to-the-box remote management connections is too long. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large and sustained number of crafted remote management connections to an affected device, resulting in a buildup of those connections over time. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the remote management interface or Cisco Firepower Device Manager (FDM) to stop responding and cause other management functions to go offline, resulting in a DoS condition. The user traffic that is flowing through the device would not be affected, and the DoS condition would be isolated to remote management only.

Weakness: CWE-613 (DEPRECATED: Insufficient Session Expiration), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3188?

It affects 13 products.


Products: Cisco Asa 5505 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5510 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5512-X Firmware, Cisco Asa 5515-X Firmware, Cisco Asa 5520 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5525-X Firmware, Cisco Asa 5540 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5545-X Firmware, Cisco Asa 5550 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5555-X Firmware, Cisco Asa 5580 Firmware, Cisco Asa 5585-X Firmware, Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-3188?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3188 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-3188 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3188 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense

- [CVE-2020-3179](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3179/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Generic Routing Encapsulation Tunnel IPv6 Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2020-3189](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3189/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software VPN System Logging Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2020-3283](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3283/): Cisco Firepower 1000 Series SSL/TLS Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2020-3255](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3255/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Packet Flood Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2020-3186](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3186/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Management Access List Bypass Vulnerability (medium 5.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3188 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-3188 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense, published on 6 May 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3188 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense. 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-2020-3188/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3188/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3188
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3188
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3188

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3188/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.