CVE-2023-20082 Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches Secure Boot Bypass Vulnerability
Authenticated or physical attackers can bypass Secure Boot on Cisco Catalyst 9300 switches to execute persistent code at boot time.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2023-20082?
CVE-2023-20082 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 23 Mar 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches could allow an authenticated, local attacker with level-15 privileges or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust. This vulnerability is due to errors that occur when retrieving the public release key that is used for image signature verification. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying specific variables in the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash memory of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute persistent code on the underlying operating system. Note: In Cisco IOS XE Software releases 16.11.1 and later, the complexity of an attack using this vulnerability is high. However, an attacker with level-15 privileges could easily downgrade the Cisco IOS XE Software on a device to a release that would lower the attack complexity.
Weakness: CWE-78
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20082?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Cisco Ios Xe.
How do I fix CVE-2023-20082?
No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20082 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2023-20082 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20082 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios Xe
- CVE-2023-20198 Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation
- CVE-2018-0151 Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software Quality of Service Remote Code Execution
- CVE-2023-20273 Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection
- CVE-2025-20188 Hardcoded credentials in Cisco IOS XE Software
- CVE-2021-34770 Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers CAPWAP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Sources
Also known as GHSA-c6f2-hw3g-3568.