# CVE-2023-20136: Privilege escalation in Cisco Secure Workload

> Authenticated read-only users can execute administrator-level OpenAPI operations, allowing unauthorized modification of user labels.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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:** 28 Jun 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j98g-g34p-r4ch

## What is CVE-2023-20136?

CVE-2023-20136 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Secure Workload, published on 28 Jun 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the OpenAPI of Cisco Secure Workload could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with the privileges of a read-only user to execute operations that should require Administrator privileges. The attacker would need valid user credentials.

 This vulnerability is due to improper role-based access control (RBAC) of certain OpenAPI operations. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a crafted OpenAPI function call with valid credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute OpenAPI operations that are reserved for the Administrator user, including the creation and deletion of user labels.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-648 (Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20136?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Secure Workload.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20136?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20136 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-20136 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20136 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Secure Workload

- [CVE-2026-20223](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20223/): Cisco Secure Workload Unauthorized API Access Vulnerability (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20136 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20136 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Secure Workload, published on 28 Jun 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20136 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Secure Workload. 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-2023-20136/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20136/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20136
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20136
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20136

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20136/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.