CVE-2022-20960: cisco cisco secure email Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2022-20960 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in cisco cisco secure email. EPSS estimates a 0.85% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 57.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 03-11-2022
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 03-08-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A vulnerability in Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of certain TLS connections that are processed by an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by establishing a large number of concurrent TLS connections to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to drop new TLS email messages that come from the associated email servers. Exploitation of this vulnerability does not cause the affected device to unexpectedly reload. The device will recover autonomously within a few hours of when the attack is halted or mitigated.

• CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionThe product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
• CWE-295Improper Certificate ValidationThe product does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate.