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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2022-20798 json

Cisco Email Security Appliance and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager External Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

published 4y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2022-26048

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.6%
EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A vulnerability in the external authentication functionality of Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, formerly known as Cisco Security Management Appliance (SMA), and Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and log in to the web management interface of an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper authentication checks when an affected device uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for external authentication. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by entering a specific input on the login page of the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the web-based management interface of the affected device.

Patch / fix

  • cisco email_security_appliance 14.0.1-033
  • cisco secure_email_and_web_manager 13.0.0-277, 13.6.2-090, 13.8.1-090, 14.0.0-418, 14.1.0-250

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

1.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • Cisco Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA)

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.