# CVE-2022-20795: Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

> Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause denial of service on Cisco ASA and FTD devices by sending crafted DTLS traffic to AnyConnect SSL VPN connections.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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:** 21 Apr 2022
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4cwx-r6vp-5886

## What is CVE-2022-20795?

CVE-2022-20795 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance, published on 21 Apr 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.

Weakness: CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20795?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-20795?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20795 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-20795 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20795 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance

- [CVE-2021-1573](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1573/): Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2021-34793](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34793/): Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2021-40117](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40117/): Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2021-40118](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40118/): Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2020-3304](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3304/): Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software (high 8.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-20795 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-20795 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance, published on 21 Apr 2022. 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-2022-20795 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance. 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-2022-20795/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20795/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-20795
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-20795
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-20795

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20795/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.