Secure Firewall Threat DefenseApplication · Cisco

CVE-2022-20950

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-11-15
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
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
A vulnerability in the interaction of SIP and Snort 3 for Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 detection engine to restart. This vulnerability is due to a lack of error-checking when SIP bidirectional flows are being inspected by Snort 3. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a stream of crafted SIP traffic through an interface on the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to trigger a restart of the Snort 3 process, 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 vulnerability in Cisco FTD's Snort 3 SIP inspection lacks proper error-checking during bidirectional SIP flow processing. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send crafted SIP packets to trigger a Snort 3 process restart, causing denial of service.

MitigationApply the Cisco FTD software update addressing CVE-2022-20950 when available. Until then, consider rate-limiting or restricting untrusted SIP traffic at network perimeter devices.

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:= 7.2.0= 7.2.0.1

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
Low

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

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. Verify Cisco FTD is running
    Log into the FTD CLI and run 'show version' to confirm the device is Cisco Firepower Threat Defense
    Affected if The device is not running Cisco FTD (this CVE only affects FTD)
  2. Check FTD software version
    Run 'show version' and locate the software version in the output; compare it to the affected versions 7.2.0 and 7.2.0.1
    Affected if The version is exactly 7.2.0 or 7.2.0.1
  3. Confirm Snort 3 SIP inspection is enabled
    Run 'show running-config | include sip' or access the FTD management interface to check if SIP inspection policy is configured
    Affected if SIP inspection is enabled and applied to traffic
  4. Verify exposure to untrusted SIP traffic
    Review access control policies and network placement to determine if the FTD processes SIP traffic from untrusted external sources
    Affected if The FTD processes SIP traffic from untrusted or internet-facing networks

You are affected if your FTD runs version 7.2.0 or 7.2.0.1, has Snort 3 SIP inspection enabled, and processes SIP traffic from untrusted sources.

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 the Cisco FTD software update addressing CVE-2022-20950 when available. Until then, consider rate-limiting or restricting untrusted SIP traffic at network perimeter devices.

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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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-20950 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-20950 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