Cisco Multiple Products Improper Input Validation Vulnerability

[ Why it matters ]Priority signals

• Exploited in the wild: on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list since 2025-12-17
• EPSS: 32% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (higher than 98% of CVEs)
• Critical severity: CVSS 10.0

[ Description ]Official description

A vulnerability in the Spam Quarantine feature of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary system commands on an affected device with root privileges. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of HTTP requests by the Spam Quarantine feature. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with root privileges.

CISA: Cisco Secure Email Gateway, Secure Email, AsyncOS Software, and Web Manager appliances contains an improper input validation vulnerability that allows threat actors to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the underlying operating system of an affected appliance.

[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches

CISA required action (US federal deadline 24 Dec 2025): Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

No fix or interim patch is linked from our sources yet. Check the vendor references below and limit exposure of affected systems until a fix is available.

[ References ]References

• sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sma-atta…Vendor Advisory
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalogUS Government Resource