KEV Intelligence

Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2024-20359

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

Cisco / Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software · 9.12.1 to <= 9.12.4.65

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Severity
CVSS 6.0 · Medium
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
19.4%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2024-20359 is a vulnerability affecting Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software, Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.... A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

Cisco / Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.12.1 to <= 9.12.4.65.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plug-ins and that has been available in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary code with root-level privileges. Administrator-level privileges are required to exploit this vulnerability.

This vulnerability is due to improper validation of a file when it is read from system flash memory. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by copying a crafted file to the disk0: file system of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device after the next reload of the device, which could alter system behavior. Because the injected code could persist across device reboots, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High.

Vendor Product Affected Status
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.2.13 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.2.14 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3.3 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3.14 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3.15 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3.19 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.3.23 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.9 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.14 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.18 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.19 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.27 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.38 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.39 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.42 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.48 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.16.4.55 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1.7 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1.9 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1.10 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1.11 Affected
Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 9.17.1.13 Affected
Published
24 Apr 2024
Exploitation Reported
24 Apr 2024
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa nessus_scanner edge

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-20359
  • cisco-sa-asaftd-persist-rce-FLsNXF4h sec.cloudapps.cisco.com · CVE Record https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurity...

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 24 Apr 2024

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

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Source Added
CISA First 2024-04-24 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
0
User-Agents
0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/193897 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

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

EPSS

19.4%

Weaknesses

Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') CWE-94

Recent mention · Tenable Blog

Verizon 2025 DBIR: Tenable Research Collaboration Shines a Spotlight on CVE Remediation Trends

The 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) reveals that vulnerability exploitation was present in 20% of breaches — a 34% increase year-over-year. To support the report, Tenable Research contributed enriched data on the most exploited vulnerabilities. In this...

Read full advisory

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  3. Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2024-20359

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2024-20359",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 6.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.19434,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

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