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Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2013-1194

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-04-18
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
The ISAKMP implementation on Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) devices generates different responses for IKE aggressive-mode messages depending on whether invalid VPN groups are specified, which allows remote attackers to enumerate groups via a series of messages, aka Bug ID CSCue73708.

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 confidence

The ISAKMP implementation on Cisco ASA devices exhibits different response behaviors for IKE aggressive-mode messages when invalid VPN group names are provided versus valid ones. This response variance allows remote attackers to systematically enumerate valid VPN group names by observing which queries elicit distinct responses, enabling credential theft or unauthorized access to VPN resources.

MitigationApply Cisco ASA software updates that address Bug ID CSCue73708. Until patched, monitor for repeated IKE aggressive-mode authentication failures with varying group names and consider disabling aggressive mode in favor of main mode.

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:all versions
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 if the device is a Cisco ASA
    Execute 'show version' or 'show inventory' on the device CLI and look for 'Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance' or 'ASA' in the output
    Affected if The device is a Cisco ASA or Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance running any software version
  2. Verify if IKE aggressive mode is enabled
    Execute 'show run crypto isakmp' and look for 'aggressive-mode' under the ISAKMP policy configuration, or check if any ISAKMP policy references aggressive mode
    Affected if Aggressive mode is enabled (the default for certain VPN configurations)
  3. Confirm presence of VPN group configurations
    Execute 'show run group-policy' or 'show run | include group-policy' to list configured VPN group policies
    Affected if Any VPN group policies are configured on the device
  4. Check for enumeration attack patterns in logs
    Review system logs (show logging) for repeated IKE aggressive-mode authentication failures where the group-name field varies across successive attempts. Look for patterns like 'IKE Aggressive Mode no DH group set' or repeated 'group not found' messages with different group names
    Affected if Logs show repeated IKE authentication failures with varying group names suggesting enumeration activity

A Cisco ASA device with IKE aggressive mode enabled and VPN group configurations present is affected by this vulnerability; detection focuses on identifying the device type, aggressive mode usage, and any evidence of group name enumeration attempts in logs.

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

Apply Cisco ASA software updates that address Bug ID CSCue73708. Until patched, monitor for repeated IKE aggressive-mode authentication failures with varying group names and consider disabling aggressive mode in favor of main mode.

Fix this in Adaptive Security Appliance Software Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2013-1194 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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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