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Secure Firewall Threat DefenseApplication · Cisco

CVE-2020-3254

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.2.3.16 / 6.3.0.6 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
Multiple vulnerabilities in the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) inspection feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerabilities are due to inefficient memory management. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending crafted MGCP packets through an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause memory exhaustion resulting in a restart of an affected device, causing a DoS condition for traffic traversing the device.

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

Multiple vulnerabilities in the MGCP inspection feature of Cisco ASA and FTD software allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause memory exhaustion by sending crafted MGCP packets through the affected device, resulting in a denial of service via device restart.

MitigationIf MGCP inspection is not required, disable it on the affected device. Otherwise, apply Cisco patches when available and consider implementing ingress filtering for MGCP traffic at network boundaries to reduce exposure.

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:>= 6.2.3, < 6.2.3.16>= 6.3.0, < 6.3.0.6>= 6.4.0, < 6.4.0.4
Asa 5505 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5510 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5512 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5515 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5520 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5525 X FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)
Asa 5540 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 9.10\(1.3\)

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. Confirm MGCP inspection is enabled
    Check the device configuration for MGCP inspection policy. On Cisco ASA, use 'show running-config policy-map | include -i mgcp' or 'show service-policy inspect mgcp'. On FTD, use the equivalent show commands via CLI or FMC to verify MGCP inspection is active in any policy-map or service policy.
    Affected if MGCP inspection is actively applied to traffic (enabled and bound to an interface or global policy)
  2. Identify software version on Cisco ASA
    Execute 'show version' on the ASA CLI and locate the running software version (the 'System image' or 'Version' field). Record the full version string (for example, 9.10(1.3)).
    Affected if Version matches 9.10(1.3) for any of the listed ASA models (5505, 5510, 5512X, 5515X, 5520, 5525X, 5540)
  3. Identify software version on Cisco FTD
    Execute 'show version' on the FTD CLI or check via Firepower Management Center (FMC) under Device > Device Management. Locate the specific version number (for example, 6.2.3, 6.3.0, 6.4.0).
    Affected if Version falls within any of these ranges: 6.2.3.x where x < 16; 6.3.0.x where x < 6; 6.4.0.x where x < 4
  4. Determine if affected model and version combination is vulnerable
    Cross-reference the identified model (for ASA) or version (for FTD) against the affected products list. Confirm the exact version number matches or falls within the specified ranges.
    Affected if Device is a listed ASA model running exactly version 9.10(1.3), OR is running FTD version 6.2.3 through 6.2.3.15, 6.3.0 through 6.3.0.5, or 6.4.0 through 6.4.0.3

Device is affected if MGCP inspection is enabled AND the software version matches the specific ASA firmware 9.10(1.3) or falls within the FTD ranges (6.2.3 to 6.2.3.15, 6.3.0 to 6.3.0.5, or 6.4.0 to 6.4.0.3).

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 6.2.3.16 / 6.3.0.6 / 6.4.0.4 or later
Fixed in 6.2.3.166.3.0.66.4.0.4
Interim mitigation

If MGCP inspection is not required, disable it on the affected device. Otherwise, apply Cisco patches when available and consider implementing ingress filtering for MGCP traffic at network boundaries to reduce exposure.

Fix this in Secure Firewall Threat Defense Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2020-3254 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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