# CVE-2023-20210: Privilege escalation in Cisco BroadWorks

> An authenticated local attacker with administrative privileges can execute arbitrary commands as root due to insufficient input validation in the CLI.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4hhj-h38j-ccw8

## What is CVE-2023-20210?

CVE-2023-20210 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco BroadWorks, published on 12 Jul 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 BroadWorks could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to the root user on an affected device.

 The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation by the operating system CLI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a crafted command to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands as the root user. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have valid BroadWorks administrative privileges on the affected device.

Weakness: CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20210?

It affects 16 products.


Products: Cisco Broadworks Application Delivery Platform Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Application Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Database Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Database Troubleshooting Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Execution Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Media Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Messaging Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Network Database Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Network Function Manager Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Network Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Profile Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Service Control Function Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Sharing Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Video Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Webrtc Server Firmware, Cisco Broadworks Xtended Services Platform Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20210?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20210 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-20210 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20210 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20210 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20210 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco BroadWorks, published on 12 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20210 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco BroadWorks. 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-2023-20210/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20210/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20210
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20210
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20210

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20210/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.