Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2024-20359

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

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

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

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

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.

cisco Affected
asa
Through 9.12.4.65 Before 9.14.4.23 Through 9.15.1.21 Through 9.16.4.55 Through 9.17.1.33 Through 9.18.4.8 Through 9.19.1.27 Through 9.20.2 Through 9.8.4.48
cisco Affected
firepower_threat_defense_software
Through 6.2.3.18 Through 6.6.7.1 Through 6.4.0.17 Through 6.7.0.3 Through 7.0.6 Through 7.1.0.3 Through 7.2.4.1 Through 7.3.1.1 Through 7.4.1
Cisco Affected
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
9.8.1 9.8.1.5 9.8.1.7 9.8.2 9.8.2.8 9.8.2.14 9.8.2.15 9.8.2.17 9.8.2.20 9.8.2.24 9.8.2.26 9.8.2.28 9.8.2.33 9.8.2.35 9.8.2.38 9.8.3.8 9.8.3.11 9.8.3.14 9.8.3.16 9.8.3.18 9.8.3.21 9.8.3 9.8.3.26 9.8.3.29 9.8.4 9.8.4.3 9.8.4.7 9.8.4.8 9.8.4.10 9.8.4.12 9.8.4.15 9.8.4.17 9.8.4.25 9.8.4.20 9.8.4.22 9.8.4.26 9.8.4.29 9.8.4.32 9.8.4.33 9.8.4.34 9.8.4.35 9.8.4.39 9.8.4.40 9.8.4.41 9.8.4.43 9.8.4.44 9.8.4.45 9.8.4.46 9.8.4.48 9.12.1 9.12.1.2 9.12.1.3 9.12.2 9.12.2.4 9.12.2.5 9.12.2.9 9.12.3 9.12.3.2 9.12.3.7 9.12.4 9.12.3.12 9.12.3.9 9.12.2.1 9.12.4.2 9.12.4.4 9.12.4.7 9.12.4.10 9.12.4.13 9.12.4.8 9.12.4.18 9.12.4.24 9.12.4.26 9.12.4.29 9.12.4.30 9.12.4.35 9.12.4.37 9.12.4.38 9.12.4.39 9.12.4.40 9.12.4.41 9.12.4.47 9.12.4.48 9.12.4.50 9.12.4.52 9.12.4.54 9.12.4.55 9.12.4.56 9.12.4.58 9.12.4.62 9.12.4.65 9.14.1 9.14.1.10 9.14.1.6 9.14.1.15 9.14.1.19 9.14.1.30 9.14.2 9.14.2.4 9.14.2.8 9.14.2.13 9.14.2.15 9.14.3 9.14.3.1 9.14.3.9 9.14.3.11 9.14.3.13 9.14.3.18 9.14.3.15 9.14.4 9.14.4.6 9.14.4.7 9.14.4.12 9.14.4.13 9.14.4.14 9.14.4.15 9.14.4.17 9.14.4.22 9.14.4.23 9.15.1 9.15.1.7 9.15.1.10 9.15.1.15 9.15.1.16 9.15.1.17 9.15.1.1 9.15.1.21 9.16.1 9.16.1.28 9.16.2 9.16.2.3 9.16.2.7 9.16.2.11 9.16.2.13 9.16.2.14 9.16.3 9.16.3.3 9.16.3.14 9.16.3.15 9.16.3.19 9.16.3.23 9.16.4 9.16.4.9 9.16.4.14 9.16.4.18 9.16.4.19 9.16.4.27 9.16.4.38 9.16.4.39 9.16.4.42 9.16.4.48 9.16.4.55 9.17.1 9.17.1.7 9.17.1.9 9.17.1.10 9.17.1.11 9.17.1.13 9.17.1.15 9.17.1.20 9.17.1.30 9.17.1.33 9.18.1 9.18.1.3 9.18.2 9.18.2.5 9.18.2.7 9.18.2.8 9.18.3 9.18.3.39 9.18.3.46 9.18.3.53 9.18.3.55 9.18.3.56 9.18.4 9.18.4.5 9.18.4.8 9.19.1 9.19.1.5 9.19.1.9 9.19.1.12 9.19.1.18 9.19.1.22 9.19.1.24 9.19.1.27 9.20.1 9.20.1.5 9.20.2
Cisco Affected
Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software
6.2.3 6.2.3.1 6.2.3.2 6.2.3.3 6.2.3.4 6.2.3.5 6.2.3.6 6.2.3.7 6.2.3.8 6.2.3.10 6.2.3.11 6.2.3.9 6.2.3.12 6.2.3.13 6.2.3.14 6.2.3.15 6.2.3.16 6.2.3.17 6.2.3.18 6.6.0 6.6.0.1 6.6.1 6.6.3 6.6.4 6.6.5 6.6.5.1 6.6.5.2 6.6.7 6.6.7.1 6.4.0 6.4.0.1 6.4.0.3 6.4.0.2 6.4.0.4 6.4.0.5 6.4.0.6 6.4.0.7 6.4.0.8 6.4.0.9 6.4.0.10 6.4.0.11 6.4.0.12 6.4.0.13 6.4.0.14 6.4.0.15 6.4.0.16 6.4.0.17 6.7.0 6.7.0.1 6.7.0.2 6.7.0.3 7.0.0 7.0.0.1 7.0.1 7.0.1.1 7.0.2 7.0.2.1 7.0.3 7.0.4 7.0.5 7.0.6 7.0.6.1 7.1.0 7.1.0.1 7.1.0.2 7.1.0.3 7.2.0 7.2.0.1 7.2.1 7.2.2 7.2.3 7.2.4 7.2.4.1 7.2.5 7.2.5.1 7.3.0 7.3.1 7.3.1.1 7.4.0 7.4.1
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 Previdian 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

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

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

Learn about Pro API access
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
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian 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

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

19.4%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

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. 09:26 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 18:16 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  3. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. 15:08 UTC

    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.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • 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

Sample API response 
{
  "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 }
}