CVE-2024-20401

At a glance

Severity
CRITICAL 9.8
EPSS
EPSS 2.33 % · percentile 83 (2026-10-27)
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
cisco
NVD status
Analyzed

Description

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.

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hcisco
CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · psirt@cisco.com (Secondary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
Cisco · Cisco Secure Emailaffected N/A

References

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD