CVE-2023-20186: Cisco IOS

Critical severity, CVSS 9.1. EPSS: 0.8% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

A vulnerability in the Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to bypass command authorization and copy files to or from the file system of an affected device using the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). This vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of SCP commands in AAA command authorization checks. An attacker with valid credentials and level 15 privileges could exploit this vulnerability by using SCP to connect to an affected device from an external machine. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain or change the configuration of the affected device and put files on or retrieve files from the affected device.

Affected products

• Cisco IOS: version 12.2(58)ex only; version 12.2(58)ey only; version 12.2(58)ey1 only; version 12.2(58)ey2 only; version 12.2(58)ez only; version 12.2(58)se only; …
• Cisco IOS XE: version 3.2.0se only; version 3.2.1se only; version 3.2.2se only; version 3.2.3se only; version 3.3.0se only; version 3.3.0sg only; …

Published 2023-09-27. Last modified 2026-06-17.