Cisco Small Business Series Switch Web-based User Interface buffer overflow

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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Current Exploit Price (≈)
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CTI Interest Score
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9.3$25k-$100k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Cisco Small Business Series Switch. This affects an unknown function of the component Web-based User Interface. Such manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-20159. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cisco Small Business Series Switch (version unknown). It has been rated as very critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown function of the component Web-based User Interface. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Multiple vulnerabilities in the web-based user interface of certain Cisco Small Business Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition or execute arbitrary code with root privileges on an affected device. These vulnerabilities are due to improper validation of requests that are sent to the web interface. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

The weakness was disclosed 05/18/2023 as cisco-sa-sg-web-multi-S9g4Nkgv. The advisory is shared for download at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-20159 since 10/27/2022. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $25k-$100k (estimation calculated on 08/25/2025).

As 0-day the estimated underground price was around $25k-$100k.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2023-24338). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

Name

License

Website

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 9.4
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 9.3

VulDB Base Score: 9.8
VulDB Temp Score: 9.4
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 9.8
NVD Vector: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 8.6
CNA Vector (Cisco Systems, Inc.): 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
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VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Buffer overflow
CWE: CWE-120 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

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Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Timelineinfo

10/27/2022 🔍
05/18/2023 +203 days 🔍
05/18/2023 +0 days 🔍
08/25/2025 +830 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: cisco.com

Advisory: cisco-sa-sg-web-multi-S9g4Nkgv
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2023-20159 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2023-20159
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-229292
EUVD: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 05/18/2023 09:01
Updated: 08/25/2025 14:31
Changes: 05/18/2023 09:01 (37), 05/18/2023 09:03 (14), 06/10/2023 13:18 (11), 08/25/2025 14:31 (16)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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