CVE-2025-20362Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security (ASA) Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Missing Authorization Vulnerability
CVE-2025-20362 is a missing authorization in Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense, rated high (8.6 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
An action never checks whether the caller is allowed to perform it.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Is it being exploited?
CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-09-25: it is being exploited in the wild. It can be exploited automatically, at scale. EPSS estimates a 87% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 100% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2025-09-26.
- Upgrade Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense to a fixed version for your release line (7.0.8.1, 7.2.10.2, 7.4.2.4). Other affected products have their own fixed versions on this page.
- Until it is patched, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
- Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.
Description from NVD
Update: On November 5, 2025, Cisco became aware of a new attack variant against devices running Cisco Secure ASA Software or Cisco Secure FTD Software releases that are affected by CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362. This attack can cause unpatched devices to unexpectedly reload, leading to denial of service (DoS) conditions. Cisco strongly recommends that all customers upgrade to the fixed software releases that are listed in the Fixed Software ["#fs"] section of this advisory. A vulnerability in the VPN web server of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access restricted URL endpoints that are related to remote access VPN that should otherwise be inaccessible without authentication. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input in HTTP(S) requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to a targeted web server on a device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access a restricted URL without authentication.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Network edge devices: VPNs, firewalls, routers and gateways. They sit between the internet and internal networks, so a flaw in one is often the first step into everything behind it.
- Operating systems on servers, workstations or devices. Everything on the host inherits the flaw.
- Permission checks in APIs and admin surfaces. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
- Multi-tenant services. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
Trust boundaries in play
- Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
- Between one role or tenant and another. An attacker who crosses it can reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.