Cisco Secure Email Gateway: File Overwrite via Email Attachment CVE-2024-20401
CVE-2024-20401 Published on July 17, 2024
A vulnerability in the content scanning and message filtering features of Cisco Secure Email Gateway could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to overwrite arbitrary files on the underlying operating system. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of email attachments when file analysis and content filters are enabled. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending an email that contains a crafted attachment through an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to replace any file on the underlying file system. The attacker could then perform any of the following actions: add users with root privileges, modify the device configuration, execute arbitrary code, or cause a permanent denial of service (DoS) condition on the affected device. Note: Manual intervention is required to recover from the DoS condition. Customers are advised to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to help recover a device in this condition.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2024-20401 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be critical as this vulnerability has a high impact to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this component.
Weakness Type
Absolute Path Traversal
The software uses external input to construct a pathname that should be within a restricted directory, but it does not properly neutralize absolute path sequences such as "/abs/path" that can resolve to a location that is outside of that directory. This allows attackers to traverse the file system to access files or directories that are outside of the restricted directory.
Products Associated with CVE-2024-20401
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Affected Versions
Cisco Secure Email:- Version N/A is affected.
- Before 15.5.1-055 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.