Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system · Cisco
CVE-2010-4690
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Mobile User Security (MUS) service on Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 series devices with software before 8.3(2) does not properly authenticate HTTP requests from a Web Security appliance (WSA), which might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a HEAD request, aka Bug ID CSCte53635.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Mobile User Security (MUS) service on Cisco ASA 5500 series devices running software before 8.3(2) fails to properly authenticate HTTP requests from Web Security appliances (WSA). This authentication bypass allows remote unauthenticated attackers to send HEAD requests and potentially obtain sensitive information from the MUS service.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system
<= 8.3\(1\)= 7.0= 7.0\(0\)= 7.0\(2\)= 7.0\(4\)= 7.0\(5\)= 7.0\(5.2\)= 7.0\(6.7\)= 7.0.1= 7.0.1.4= 7.0.2= 7.0.4
5500 Series Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance
all versions
Asa 5500Hardware / appliance
all versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify device model and seriesRun 'show version' or 'show hardware' on the ASA CLI to confirm the device is a Cisco ASA 5500 series appliance.Affected if The device is an ASA 5500 series model.
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Check ASA software versionRun 'show version' and locate the 'Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software' version number. Compare it to the affected range: versions before 8.3(2), including 7.0.x versions.Affected if The software version is 8.3(1) or earlier, or any 7.0.x version listed in the affected versions.
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Verify Mobile User Security service is enabledRun 'show running-config' and search for 'mus' or 'mobile-user-security' related configuration, or check the service with 'show service-policy' to see if MUS inspection is active.Affected if The Mobile User Security (MUS) service is configured and active on the device.
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Check HTTP inspection policy for WSAInspect the HTTP inspection map configuration with 'show running-config inspect http' to see if Web Security Appliance inspection is configured, which is required for the bypass to be exploitable.Affected if HTTP inspection for WSA is configured, allowing the vulnerable authentication bypass path.
The device is affected if it is a Cisco ASA 5500 series running software version 8.3(1) or earlier (including 7.0.x) with the Mobile User Security service enabled and HTTP inspection for Web Security Appliance configured.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Cisco ASA software to version 8.3(2) or later to address the authentication flaw in the Mobile User Security service.
Fix this in Adaptive Security Appliance Software
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,168.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-4690 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2010-4690 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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