CVE-2020-3514 Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Multi-Instance Container Escape Vulnerability
Authenticated local attackers can escape containers to execute root commands on the host, impacting other instances and the underlying device.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2020-3514?
CVE-2020-3514 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, published on 21 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the multi-instance feature of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to escape the container for their Cisco FTD instance and execute commands with root privileges in the host namespace. The attacker must have valid credentials on the device.The vulnerability exists because a configuration file that is used at container startup has insufficient protections. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying a specific container configuration file on the underlying file system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands with root privileges within the host namespace. This could allow the attacker to impact other running Cisco FTD instances or the host Cisco FXOS device.
Weakness: CWE-216
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3514?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense.
How do I fix CVE-2020-3514?
No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3514 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2020-3514 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3514 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center
- CVE-2026-20079 Cisco Firewall Management Center Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE-2026-20131 Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software and Cisco Security Cloud Control (SCC) Firewall Management Deserialization of Untrusted Data
- CVE-2026-20316 Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password
- CVE-2025-20265 Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Software Radius Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
- CVE-2024-20424 Command injection in Cisco Firepower Management Center
Sources
Also known as GHSA-fjp7-wvw8-x28g.