CVE-2024-20359
Description
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.
Summary dbcve.org
A local privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco ASA and FTD software allows an authenticated administrator to execute arbitrary code with root privileges by placing a crafted file on the disk0: flash filesystem. The vulnerability exists in the legacy VPN client/plugin preloading feature due to improper file validation. The malicious code executes after device reload and persists across reboots.
Mitigation
Apply Cisco security patches for ASA and FTD when available, disable the legacy VPN client preloading feature if not needed, and restrict administrative access to trusted personnel only.