Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense Software Authorization Bypass Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the implementation of SAML 2.0 single sign-on (SSO) for remote access VPN services in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to successfully establish a VPN session on an affected device.

This vulnerability is due to improper separation of authorization domains when using SAML authentication. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using valid credentials to successfully authenticate using their designated connection profile (tunnel group), intercepting the SAML SSO token that is sent back from the Cisco ASA device, and then submitting the same SAML SSO token to a different tunnel group for authentication. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to establish a remote access VPN session using a connection profile that they are not authorized to use and connect to secured networks behind the affected device that they are not authorized to access. For successful exploitation, the attacker must have valid remote access VPN user credentials.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-saml-bypass-KkNvXyKW [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-saml-bypass-KkNvXyKW”]

This advisory is part of the May 2024 release of the Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: May 2024 Semiannual Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-75298”].