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Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2012-0335

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-05-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 series devices with software 7.2 through 8.4 do not properly perform proxy authentication during attempts to cut through a firewall, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a connection attempt, aka Bug ID CSCtx42746.

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 · moderate confidence

The vulnerability exists in Cisco ASA 5500 series devices running software versions 7.2 through 8.4, where proxy authentication is not properly enforced when attempting to cut through the firewall. This allows unauthenticated remote attackers to potentially obtain sensitive information through connection attempts without proper proxy authentication validation.

MitigationUpgrade Cisco ASA software to a version beyond 8.4 that addresses this vulnerability, or implement additional authentication controls on proxy connections to mitigate the issue until patching is possible.

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
Affected:= 7.2= 7.2\(1\)= 7.2\(1.22\)= 7.2\(2\)= 7.2\(2.5\)= 7.2\(2.7\)= 7.2\(2.8\)= 7.2\(2.10\)= 7.2\(2.14\)= 7.2\(2.15\)= 7.2\(2.16\)= 7.2\(2.17\)
5500 Series Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the Cisco ASA device model
    Run 'show version' or 'show hardware' command on the ASA CLI to confirm the device is an ASA 5500 series model
    Affected if The device is any ASA 5500 series model (ASA 5505, 5510, 5520, 5540, 5550)
  2. Check the installed software version
    Run 'show version' on the ASA CLI and locate the 'Software Version' line. Compare this version number against the affected range of 7.2 through 8.4
    Affected if The software version is 7.2.x, 8.0.x, 8.1.x, 8.2.x, 8.3.x, or 8.4.x (any version from 7.2 through 8.4 inclusive)
  3. Verify proxy authentication feature configuration
    Run 'show running-config' and search for 'proxy' or 'authentication' related commands such as 'aaa authentication proxy', 'aaa-server', or authentication policy configurations
    Affected if Proxy authentication is configured on the ASA (the vulnerability applies when proxy authentication is meant to be enforced but is not properly validated)
  4. Inspect cut-through proxy configuration
    Run 'show running-config | include cut-through' or check for 'cut-through-proxy' in the configuration. Also check the authentication server configuration with 'show aaa-server'
    Affected if Cut-through proxy feature is enabled and the authentication server is configured but validation is bypassed

A user is affected if they have a Cisco ASA 5500 series device running software versions 7.2 through 8.4 with proxy authentication configured that can be bypassed by unauthenticated connection attempts.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Cisco ASA software to a version beyond 8.4 that addresses this vulnerability, or implement additional authentication controls on proxy connections to mitigate the issue until patching is possible.

Fix this in Adaptive Security Appliance Software Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-0335 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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