CVE-2022-20868 Hardcoded credentials in Cisco Secure Email
Authenticated attackers can exploit hardcoded encryption keys to impersonate users and execute commands with elevated privileges on Cisco email and web security appliances.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2022-20868?
CVE-2022-20868 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Asyncos, published on 3 Nov 2022. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Email Security Appliance, Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges on an affected system. The attacker needs valid credentials to exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability is due to the use of a hardcoded value to encrypt a token used for certain APIs calls . An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the device and sending a crafted HTTP request. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to impersonate another valid user and execute commands with the privileges of that user account.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20868?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Cisco Asyncos.
How do I fix CVE-2022-20868?
No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20868 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2022-20868 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20868 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Asyncos
- CVE-2025-20393 Cisco Multiple Products Improper Input Validation
- CVE-2026-76519 Cisco Secure Email Gateway Relative Path Traversal
- CVE-2026-76461 Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection
- CVE-2024-20435 Command injection in Cisco Secure Web Appliance
- CVE-2019-15956 Cisco Web Security Appliance Unauthorized Device Reset Vulnerability
Sources
Also known as GHSA-24wm-cqx7-gv2j.