# CVE-2024-20359: Cisco ASA and FTD Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

> CVE-2024-20359: Cisco ASA and FTD Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. CVSS 6.0 (CVSS 3.1), in CISA KEV.

Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-20359
Last updated: 2025-10-21T23:05:20Z

- Published: 2024-04-24 18:16 UTC · Updated: 2025-10-21 23:05 UTC · Assigner: cisco
- CVSS: 6.0 (CVSS 3.1) · Severity: Medium · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- EPSS: 18.8%, 97th percentile (scored 2026-10-25)
- CISA KEV: yes, added 2024-04-24, federal due date 2024-05-01, ransomware use: Unknown
- CWE: CWE-94

## Description

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.

## CISA required action

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

## Affected vendors and products

- cisco: asa
- cisco: firepower\_threat\_defense\_software
- Cisco: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
- Cisco: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software

## References

- [CVE record on cve.org](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-20359)
- [NVD entry](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-20359)
- [https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-persist-rce-FLsNXF4h](https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-persist-rce-FLsNXF4h)

---

_Sources: CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (https://www.cve.org/) This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (https://nvd.nist.gov/) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (https://www.first.org/epss/)_


---
Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-20359 · Markdown: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-20359.md · JSON: https://rewindex.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2024-20359 · Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Generated 2026-10-26T02:14:54.916Z