CVE-2020-3514: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Multi-Instance Container Escape Vulnerability

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.7 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-10-21 · updated 2026-08-11
Weakness: CWE-216

Description

A vulnerability in the multi-instance feature of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to escape the container for their Cisco FTD instance and execute commands with root privileges in the host namespace. The attacker must have valid credentials on the device.The vulnerability exists because a configuration file that is used at container startup has insufficient protections. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying a specific container configuration file on the underlying file system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands with root privileges within the host namespace. This could allow the attacker to impact other running Cisco FTD instances or the host Cisco FXOS device.

Affected products

Cisco Firepower Management Center: before 6.6.1 — fixed in 6.6.1
Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software: from 6.3.0 before 6.3.0.6; from 6.4.0 before 6.4.0.10; from 6.5.0 before 6.5.0.5; 6.6.0 — fixed in 6.3.0.6, 6.4.0.10, 6.5.0.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Cisco Firepower Management Center 6.6.1; Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software 6.3.0.6, 6.4.0.10, 6.5.0.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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