# CVE-2020-3547: Information disclosure in Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA)

> Authenticated attackers can view masked passwords in the web interface HTML, exposing sensitive credentials on Cisco security appliances.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Sep 2020
- **Updated:** 13 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-5hr4-4h3v-pvc5

## What is CVE-2020-3547?

CVE-2020-3547 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Asyncos, published on 4 Sep 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco AsyncOS software for Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA), Cisco Content Security Management Appliance (SMA), and Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to access sensitive information on an affected device. The vulnerability exists because an insecure method is used to mask certain passwords on the web-based management interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by looking at the raw HTML code that is received from the interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain some of the passwords configured throughout the interface.

Weakness: CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials), CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3547?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Asyncos.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-3547?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3547 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-3547 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3547 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Asyncos

- [CVE-2025-20393](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20393/): Cisco Multiple Products Improper Input Validation (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-76519](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-76519/): Cisco Secure Email Gateway Relative Path Traversal (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-76461](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-76461/): Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-20435](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20435/): Command injection in Cisco Secure Web Appliance (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-15956](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15956/): Cisco Web Security Appliance Unauthorized Device Reset Vulnerability (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3547 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-3547 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Asyncos, published on 4 Sep 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3547 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Asyncos. 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-2020-3547/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3547/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3547
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3547
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3547

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3547/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.