Two critical root flaws threaten Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Attackers can gain full control over Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC). Developers have resolved this and other security issues in Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and other products with newly released security patches. So far, there are no indications that attackers are already attacking networks.

Root Vulnerabilities

FMC is vulnerable through two “critical” security vulnerabilities with the highest rating (CVE-2026-20079, CVE-2026-20131, each with a CVSS score of 10 out of 10). In the first case, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability with prepared HTTP requests without authentication. If successful, they can execute scripts with root privileges.

In the second case, attacks are also possible remotely and without authentication. Here, attackers can execute malicious code with root privileges. In both cases, instances are expected to be considered fully compromised afterwards. To find the appropriate security updates, administrators must specify their firewall models, among other things, in a selection menu in the advisories linked under the CVE numbers.

Further Dangers

Through seven additional vulnerabilities in ASA and FMC classified as “high” threat level, attackers can trigger DoS attacks or access data that should be isolated. Additionally, developers have closed several security vulnerabilities classified as “medium.” In these areas, XSS attacks are possible in addition to DoS.

An XSS vulnerability (CVE-2026-20149, “medium”) was also closed in Webex. Cisco lists further information on the vulnerabilities and security patches in the security section of its website.

(des)