What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-3153: Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows Uncontrolled Search Path Vulnerability

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2022-10-24
• EPSS: 28.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2020-02-19 · updated 2026-08-12
• Weakness: CWE-427

Description

A vulnerability in the installer component of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows could allow an authenticated local attacker to copy user-supplied files to system level directories with system level privileges. The vulnerability is due to the incorrect handling of directory paths. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious file and copying the file to a system directory. An exploit could allow the attacker to copy malicious files to arbitrary locations with system level privileges. This could include DLL pre-loading, DLL hijacking, and other related attacks. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs valid credentials on the Windows system.

Affected products

• Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client: before 4.8.02042 — fixed in 4.8.02042

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client 4.8.02042. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157340/Cisco-AnyConnect-Secure-Mobility-Client-4.8.01090-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158219/Cisco-AnyConnect-Path-Traversal-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159420/Cisco-AnyConnect-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Apr/43
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ac-win-path-traverse-qO4HWBsj
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157340/Cisco-AnyConnect-Secure-Mobility-Client-4.8.01090-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158219/Cisco-AnyConnect-Path-Traversal-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159420/Cisco-AnyConnect-Privilege-Escalation.html
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Apr/43
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ac-win-path-traverse-qO4HWBsj
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-3153

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