# 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.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 Oct 2020
- **Updated:** 13 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-fjp7-wvw8-x28g

## 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 (DEPRECATED: Containment Errors (Container Errors))

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3514?

It affects 2 products.


Products: 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](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20079/): Cisco Firewall Management Center Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20131](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20131/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software and Cisco Security Cloud Control (SCC) Firewall Management Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20316](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20316/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-20265](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20265/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Software Radius Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-20424](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20424/): Command injection in Cisco Firepower Management Center (critical 9.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3514 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3514 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. 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-2020-3514/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3514/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3514
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3514
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3514

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3514/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.