CVE-2026-20023 Memory corruption in Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

Medium 6.1 Published Updated

An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by sending crafted OSPF packets that trigger memory corruption in Cisco ASA and FTD software.

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-2026-20023?

CVE-2026-20023 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 4 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in the OSPF protocol of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to corrupt memory on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to memory corruption when parsing OSPF protocol packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted OSPF packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause memory corruption causing the affected device to reboot, resulting in a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-787

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20023?

It affects 2 products.

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

How do I fix CVE-2026-20023?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20023 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2026-20023 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20023 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-c9c2-73hm-242h.

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