CVE-2026-20009 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-20009: Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance SSH Partial Private Key Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Vendor Cisco
Product Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Weakness CWE-138
Published March 4, 2026
Last update March 5, 2026

CVSS base score

5.3/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality Low
Integrity None

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

A vulnerability in the implementation of the proprietary SSH stack with SSH key-based authentication in Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to a Cisco Secure Firewall ASA device and execute commands as a specific user. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user input during the SSH authentication phase. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input during SSH authentication to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the device as a specific user without the private SSH key of that user. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must possess a valid username and the associated public key. The private key is not required. Notes: Exploitation of this vulnerability does not provide the attacker with root access. The authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) configuration command auto-enable is not affected by this vulnerability.  

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

March 4, 2026 CVE published
March 5, 2026 Record updated