Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software SSL and Snort 3 Detection Engine Bypass and Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the SSL/TLS certificate handling of Snort 3 Detection Engine integration with Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 detection engine to restart.

This vulnerability is due to a logic error that occurs when an SSL/TLS certificate that is under load is accessed when it is initiating an SSL connection. Under specific, time-based constraints, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of SSL/TLS connection requests to be inspected by the Snort 3 detection engine on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the Snort 3 detection engine to reload, resulting in either a bypass or a denial of service (DoS) condition, depending on device configuration. See the Details [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snort-smb-3nfhJtr#details”] section of this advisory for more information. The Snort detection engine will restart automatically. No manual intervention is required.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-snort3-8U4HHxH8 [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-snort3-8U4HHxH8”]

This advisory is part of the November 2023 release of the Cisco ASA, FTD, and FMC Security Advisory Bundled publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: November 2023 Semiannual Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-74985”].