Frequently asked questions about CVE-2024-20353 and CVE-2024-20359, two vulnerabilities associated with “ArcaneDoor,” the espionage-related campaign targeting Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances.

CVE-2024-20353, CVE-2024-20359: Frequently Asked Questions About ArcaneDoor

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.

Two zero-days exploited in the wild in ArcaneDoor campaign to deploy backdoor malware. Monitoring for new developments including publication of PoCs.

A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plugins 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. This vulnerability affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected device. Note: This vulnerability was publicly disclosed in conjunction with the ArcaneDoor state-sponsored espionage campaign that targeted perimeter network devices.

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A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plug-ins and that has been available in 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.

Please see the included Cisco BIDs and Cisco Security Advisory for more information.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

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 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.

Please see the included Cisco BIDs and Cisco Security Advisory for more information.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Type	Severity
505545	Cisco ASA/FTD Persistent Local Code Execution (CVE-2024-20359)	Tenable OT Security	Tenable.ot	Remote	medium
193897	Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Privilege Escalation (cisco-sa-asaftd-persist-rce-FLsNXF4h)	Nessus	CISCO	Local	medium
193896	Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Privilege Escalation (cisco-sa-asaftd-persist-rce-FLsNXF4h)	Nessus	CISCO	Local	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2024-20359

medium

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium