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Secure Firewall Threat DefenseApplication · Cisco

CVE-2020-3195

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.4.0.9 / 6.5.0.5 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
A vulnerability in the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) implementation in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a memory leak on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of certain OSPF packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of crafted OSPF packets to be processed by an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to continuously consume memory on an affected device and eventually cause it to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

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

A memory leak vulnerability in the OSPF routing protocol implementation in Cisco ASA and FTD Software allows remote attackers to continuously consume memory by sending specially crafted OSPF packets to affected devices, eventually causing memory exhaustion and device reload.

MitigationApply the Cisco security update for CVE-2020-3195 to affected ASA and FTD devices. As a workaround, implement OSPF MD5 authentication to limit packet processing to trusted neighbors and/or use route filtering to reduce attack surface.

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
Secure Firewall Threat DefenseApplication
Affected:>= 6.4.0, < 6.4.0.9>= 6.5.0, < 6.5.0.5
Asa 5505 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5510 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5512 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5515 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5520 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5525 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)
Asa 5540 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.12\(2\)

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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 device model and software version
    Run 'show version' on the ASA or FTD device CLI to obtain the exact model number and running software version (for ASA use 'show version', for FTD use 'show version' or 'show running-config | include version')
    Affected if The software version falls within 6.4.0 through 6.4.0.8, or 6.5.0 through 6.5.0.4 for FTD; or is exactly 9.12(2) for ASA models 5505, 5510, 5512X, 5515X, 5520, 5525X, or 5540
  2. Confirm OSPF routing is enabled
    Run 'show ospf interface' or 'show running-config ospf' to verify OSPF process is configured and running on the device
    Affected if OSPF is enabled and an OSPF process is actively running on one or more interfaces
  3. Verify OSPF neighbor adjacencies exist
    Run 'show ospf neighbor' to list all OSPF neighbors that have formed adjacencies with this device
    Affected if One or more OSPF neighbors are present, indicating the device is actively processing OSPF packets from other routers
  4. Check OSPF authentication configuration
    Run 'show ospf interface' and examine the authentication settings for each OSPF-enabled interface to determine if MD5 authentication is configured
    Affected if OSPF interfaces show no authentication configured (blank or 'disabled'), leaving the device vulnerable to unauthenticated OSPF packets

The device is affected if it runs an affected ASA or FTD version, has OSPF enabled and actively processing packets from neighbors without MD5 authentication protection.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.4.0.9 / 6.5.0.5 or later
Fixed in 6.4.0.96.5.0.5
Interim mitigation

Apply the Cisco security update for CVE-2020-3195 to affected ASA and FTD devices. As a workaround, implement OSPF MD5 authentication to limit packet processing to trusted neighbors and/or use route filtering to reduce attack surface.

Fix this in Secure Firewall Threat Defense 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-2020-3195 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data