CVE-2023-20198

CRITICAL KEV RANSOMWARE NUCLEI

Cisco IOX XE Unauthenticated RCE Chain

Title source: metasploit

Description

Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.

Exploits (37)

nomisec WORKING POC 63 stars
by smokeintheshell · remote
https://github.com/smokeintheshell/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 42 stars
by W01fh4cker · remote
https://github.com/W01fh4cker/CVE-2023-20198-RCE
nomisec SCANNER 41 stars
by fox-it · poc
https://github.com/fox-it/cisco-ios-xe-implant-detection
nomisec SCANNER 33 stars
by Shadow0ps · poc
https://github.com/Shadow0ps/CVE-2023-20198-Scanner
nomisec SCANNER 33 stars
by ZephrFish · poc
https://github.com/ZephrFish/CVE-2023-20198-Checker
nomisec SCANNER 20 stars
by Atea-Redteam · poc
https://github.com/Atea-Redteam/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 11 stars
by Tounsi007 · poc
https://github.com/Tounsi007/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 9 stars
by Pushkarup · poc
https://github.com/Pushkarup/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 7 stars
by RevoltSecurities · poc
https://github.com/RevoltSecurities/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 6 stars
by iveresk · poc
https://github.com/iveresk/cve-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC 4 stars
by sohaibeb · poc
https://github.com/sohaibeb/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER 2 stars
by alekos3 · poc
https://github.com/alekos3/CVE_2023_20198_Detector
nomisec WORKING POC 2 stars
by G4sul1n · remote
https://github.com/G4sul1n/Cisco-IOS-XE-CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WRITEUP 2 stars
by Vulnmachines · remote
https://github.com/Vulnmachines/Cisco_CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER 2 stars
by mr-r3b00t · poc
https://github.com/mr-r3b00t/CVE-2023-20198-IOS-XE-Scanner
nomisec WRITEUP 1 stars
by emomeni · poc
https://github.com/emomeni/Simple-Ansible-for-CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER 1 stars
by kacem-expereo · poc
https://github.com/kacem-expereo/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER 1 stars
by IceBreakerCode · poc
https://github.com/IceBreakerCode/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER 1 stars
by securityphoenix · poc
https://github.com/securityphoenix/cisco-CVE-2023-20198-tester
nomisec WORKING POC
by djayaGit · remote
https://github.com/djayaGit/cve-2023-20198-poc-cisco
gitlab SCANNER
by emomeni · poc
https://gitlab.com/emomeni/simple-ansible-for-cve-2023-20198
nomisec WORKING POC
by Arshit01 · remote
https://github.com/Arshit01/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER
by gustavorobertux · poc
https://github.com/gustavorobertux/cisco-cve-2023-20198-checker
nomisec SCANNER
by JoyGhoshs · poc
https://github.com/JoyGhoshs/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec STUB
by ohlawd · poc
https://github.com/ohlawd/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec WRITEUP
by netbell · poc
https://github.com/netbell/CVE-2023-20198-Fix
nomisec NO CODE
by AhmedMansour93 · poc
https://github.com/AhmedMansour93/Event-ID-193-Rule-Name-SOC231-Cisco-IOS-XE-Web-UI-ZeroDay-CVE-2023-20198-
nomisec WORKING POC
by sanan2004 · remote
https://github.com/sanan2004/CVE-2023-20198
gitlab SCANNER
by tdubiel1 · poc
https://gitlab.com/tdubiel1/simple-ansible-for-cve-2023-20198
nomisec WRITEUP
by Religan · poc
https://github.com/Religan/CVE-2023-20198
nomisec SCANNER
by raystr-atearedteam · poc
https://github.com/raystr-atearedteam/CVE-2023-20198-checker
nomisec SCANNER
by reket99 · poc
https://github.com/reket99/Cisco_CVE-2023-20198
metasploit WORKING POC
by sfewer-r7 · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_os_exec_cve_2023_20273.rb
metasploit WORKING POC EXCELLENT
by sfewer-r7 · rubypoclinux
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/linux/misc/cisco_ios_xe_rce.rb
metasploit WORKING POC
by sfewer-r7 · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_cli_exec_cve_2023_20198.rb
vulncheck_xdb SCANNER
infoleak
https://github.com/Ostorlab/known_exploited_vulnerbilities_detectors

Nuclei Templates (1)

Cisco IOS XE Web UI - Command Injection
CRITICALVERIFIEDby iamnoooob,rootxharsh,pdresearch,nullenc0de
Shodan: http.html_hash:1076109428

Scores

CVSS v3 10.0
EPSS 0.9401
EPSS Percentile 99.9%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation Intel

CISA KEV 2023-10-16
VulnCheck KEV 2023-10-16
InTheWild.io 2023-10-16
ENISA EUVD EUVD-2023-24377
Ransomware Use Confirmed

Classification

CWE
CWE-420
Status published

Affected Products (3)

rockwellautomation/allen-bradley_stratix_5200_firmware < 17.12.02
rockwellautomation/allen-bradley_stratix_5800_firmware < 17.12.02
cisco/ios_xe < 16.12.10a

Timeline

Published Oct 16, 2023
KEV Added Oct 16, 2023
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026