# CVE-2020-3297: Cisco Small Business Smart and Managed Switches Session Management Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated remote attacker can brute force weak session IDs to hijack administrative sessions on Cisco Small Business switches.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Jul 2020
- **Updated:** 15 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6c5p-w2ph-4fw7

## What is CVE-2020-3297?

CVE-2020-3297 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Cisco Small Business 200 Series Smart Switches, published on 2 Jul 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in session management for the web-based interface of Cisco Small Business Smart and Managed Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to defeat authentication protections and gain unauthorized access to the management interface. The attacker could obtain the privileges of the highjacked session account, which could include administrator privileges on the device. The vulnerability is due to the use of weak entropy generation for session identifier values. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to determine a current session identifier through brute force and reuse that session identifier to take over an ongoing session. In this way, an attacker could take actions within the management interface with privileges up to the level of the administrative user.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3297?

It affects 118 products.


Products: Cisco Sf200-24 Firmware, Cisco Sf200-24fp Firmware, Cisco Sf200-24p Firmware, Cisco Sf200-48 Firmware, Cisco Sf200-48p Firmware, Cisco Sf200e-24 Firmware, Cisco Sf200e-24p Firmware, Cisco Sf200e-48 Firmware, Cisco Sf200e-48p Firmware, Cisco Sf250-24 Firmware, Cisco Sf250-24p Firmware, Cisco Sf250-48 Firmware, Cisco Sf250-48hp Firmware, Cisco Sf300-08 Firmware, Cisco Sf300-24 Firmware, Cisco Sf300-24mp Firmware, Cisco Sf300-24p Firmware, Cisco Sf300-24pp Firmware, Cisco Sf300-48 Firmware, Cisco Sf300-48p Firmware and 98 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-3297?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3297 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-3297 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3297 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Small Business 200 Series Smart Switches

- [CVE-2018-15439](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15439/): Cisco Small Business Switches Privileged Access Vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-3363](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3363/): Cisco Small Business Smart and Managed Switches Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2019-12636](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12636/): Cisco Small Business Smart and Managed Switches Cross-Site Request Forgery Vulnerability (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2019-15993](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15993/): Cisco Small Business Switches Information Disclosure Vulnerability (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-1859](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1859/): Cisco Small Business Switches Secure Shell Certificate Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (high 7.2)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3297 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-3297 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Cisco Small Business 200 Series Smart Switches, published on 2 Jul 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-2020-3297 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Small Business 200 Series Smart Switches. 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-2020-3297/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3297/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3297
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3297
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3297

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3297/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.