CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2023-20154

CRITICAL
9.1
CVSS v3
NVD

Description

A vulnerability in the external authentication mechanism of Cisco Modeling Labs could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access the web interface with administrative privileges. This vulnerability is due to the improper handling of certain messages that are returned by the associated external authentication server. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the web interface of an affected server. Under certain conditions, the authentication mechanism would be bypassed and the attacker would be logged in as an administrator. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain administrative privileges on the web interface of an affected server, including the ability to access and modify every simulation and all user-created data. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need valid user credentials that are stored on the associated external authentication server. Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.

How to fix

Remediation Available
modeling labsNVD
Affected:>= 2.3, < 2.5.1Fixed in:2.5.1CVE-2023-20154derived from NVD

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Exploit Intelligence

0.90%probability of exploitation in 30 days
55thpercentile

Moderate risk: more likely to be exploited than 55% of all known CVEs.

References

Vendor Advisory1
Embed a live status badge for CVE-2023-20154
CVE-2023-20154 severity badge

Markdown

[![CVE-2023-20154](https://tridentstack.com/cve/badge/CVE-2023-20154.svg)](https://tridentstack.com/cve/CVE-2023-20154)

HTML

<a href="https://tridentstack.com/cve/CVE-2023-20154"><img src="https://tridentstack.com/cve/badge/CVE-2023-20154.svg" alt="CVE-2023-20154"></a>

Find and fix vulnerabilities across your fleet

TridentStack Control continuously scans your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet for known vulnerabilities, prioritizes them by severity and active exploitation, and patches them automatically.

Start free

This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-08-05.