Telepresence Video Communication ServerApplication · Cisco
CVE-2023-20192
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 · uneditedMultiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) could allow an authenticated attacker with Administrator-level read-only credentials to elevate their privileges to Administrator with read-write credentials on an affected system. Note: "Cisco Expressway Series" refers to Cisco Expressway Control (Expressway-C) devices and Cisco Expressway Edge (Expressway-E) devices. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
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 confidenceThis is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco Expressway (Expressway-C and Expressway-E) and TelePresence VCS systems. An authenticated attacker with Administrator-level read-only credentials can exploit insufficient authorization checks to elevate their privileges to Administrator with full read-write access, bypassing the intended read-only restriction.
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
Telepresence Video Communication ServerApplication
<= x14.0.3CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed TelePresence VCS or Expressway versionAccess the admin web interface and navigate to System > Information, or use the CLI command 'xStatus' or 'show systemunit' to retrieve the current software versionAffected if The installed version is x14.0.3 or any earlier version within the x14.x branch, or any version in earlier unsupported branches
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Confirm presence of read-only administrator accountsNavigate to User settings in the admin interface (User > Administrator Accounts) or use CLI command 'show administrator' to list configured administrator accounts and their privilege levelsAffected if Any read-only Administrator-level accounts are configured on the system
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Review administrator authorization configurationCheck the authorization settings for administrator accounts in the web interface under User > Administrator Accounts > Authorization, or examine the CLI output for account privilege configurationsAffected if The system allows read-only Administrator accounts without proper write-access restrictions being enforced
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Audit recent administrative sessions for privilege escalation indicatorsReview system logs accessible via Maintenance > Logs > Administrative Access Logs, or use CLI command 'show logs' to search for events where read-only accounts performed write operationsAffected if Logs show read-only administrator accounts executing commands or accessing features that require full Administrator read-write privileges
A system is affected if it runs Cisco TelePresence VCS (or Expressway) at version x14.0.3 or earlier AND has read-only Administrator accounts configured, as the insufficient authorization check allows these accounts to bypass read-only restrictions.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply the vendor patch or updated software version provided by Cisco for Expressway Series and TelePresence VCS. Until patched, monitor administrative access logs for unauthorized privilege escalation attempts.
Fix this in Telepresence Video Communication Server
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,440.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-20192 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-20192 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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