Cisco
Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense
Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security (ASA) Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Missing Authorization Vulnerability - Active in CISA...
2025-09-25
Description
Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security (ASA) Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Missing Authorization Vulnerability - Active in CISA KEV catalog.
Remediation
FEDERAL DEADLINE: September 25, 2025 (1 days). The KEV due date refers to the deadline by which FCEB agencies are expected to review and begin implementing the guidance outlined in Emergency Directive (ED) 25-03 (URL listed below in Notes). Agencies must follow the mitigation steps provided by CISA (URL listed below in Notes) and vendor’s instructions (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available. FEDERAL DEADLINE: September 25, 2025 (1 days). The KEV due date refers to the deadline by which FCEB agencies are expected to review and begin implementing the guidance outlined in Emergency Directive (ED) 25-03 (URL listed below in Notes). Agencies must follow the mitigation steps provided by CISA (URL listed below in Notes) and vendor’s instructions (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available.
CISA KEV Details
Deadline: September 25, 2025
Required Action: The KEV due date refers to the deadline by which FCEB agencies are expected to review and begin implementing the guidance outlined in Emergency Directive (ED) 25-03 (URL listed below in Notes). Agencies must follow the mitigation steps provided by CISA (URL listed below in Notes) and vendor’s instructions (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available.
Executive Summary:
A high-severity vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-20727, exists in the modem component of multiple products from the vendor "In". This flaw could allow an unauthenticated attacker to cause a system crash or execute arbitrary code by sending specially crafted data to the device. Successful exploitation could lead to a loss of connectivity or a complete compromise of the affected product's communication capabilities.
Vulnerability Details
CVE-ID: CVE-2025-20727
Affected Software: In Multiple Products
Affected Versions: See vendor advisory for specific affected versions
Vulnerability: The vulnerability is a heap-based buffer overflow within the modem's software. An attacker can trigger this flaw by sending specially crafted data to the modem, which the device fails to properly validate. This causes the system to write data beyond the intended memory buffer on the heap, leading to an out-of-bounds write condition. This memory corruption can be leveraged by an attacker to crash the modem, resulting in a denial of service, or potentially to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the modem process.
Business Impact
This vulnerability is rated as High severity with a CVSS score of 7.5. Exploitation could have a significant impact on business operations, particularly if the affected products are critical for network connectivity or communication. A successful attack could lead to operational downtime, interception or manipulation of data traffic, or the use of the compromised device as an entry point for further attacks on the internal network. This presents a direct risk of data breaches, service disruption, and reputational damage.
Remediation Plan
Immediate Action: The primary course of action is to apply the security updates provided by the vendor to all affected assets immediately. Following the update, review system and access logs for any indicators of compromise or anomalous activity that may have occurred prior to patching.
Proactive Monitoring: Establish enhanced monitoring for affected devices. Security teams should look for unusual modem behavior such as unexpected reboots, system crashes, or abnormal memory usage. Network monitoring should be configured to detect and alert on anomalous traffic patterns originating from or directed to the modem, which could signify an exploitation attempt or post-compromise communication.
Compensating Controls: If patching cannot be performed immediately, implement compensating controls to mitigate risk. Isolate affected devices on a segmented network to limit an attacker's lateral movement capabilities. Deploy an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) with signatures capable of detecting and blocking generic buffer overflow exploitation attempts.
Exploitation Status
Public Exploit Available: False
Analyst Notes: As of November 4, 2025, there is no known publicly available exploit code for this vulnerability. Additionally, this CVE is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, indicating it is not currently known to be actively exploited in the wild.
Analyst Recommendation
Given the high severity of this vulnerability and its location in a critical modem component, organizations must act swiftly. Although there is no current evidence of active exploitation, heap buffer overflows are a well-understood vulnerability class and are frequently targeted by threat actors. We strongly recommend prioritizing the immediate deployment of the vendor-provided security updates across all affected systems. The implementation of proactive monitoring and compensating controls should be considered a critical secondary measure to defend against potential future exploitation attempts.