Cisco Zero Day Bug Patch coming today

Cisco plans to release a patch for two zero-day flaws in its IOS XE devices on October 22. The first Cisco zero-day bug, which is named CVE-2023-20198, was reported on Oct. 16. By the time it was found, it had already been used by attackers to compromise over 10,000 Cisco devices. Cisco believes that all cyberattacks on its IOS XE devices are being perpetrated by the same threat actor.

Cisco recently updated its threat advisory on Oct. 20. They identified a new flaw, referred to as CVE-2023-20273, which was previously unknown. The flaw has a CVSS score of 7.2, which is slightly less severe. Both bugs are part of the same exploit chain.

Attackers used the first bug to gain initial access, and the second bug to escalate privileges after authentication, as stated in an email from Cisco announcing the upcoming patch release.

Cisco has clarified that they made a mistake in their earlier report about the bug. Initially, they thought the threat actor had combined a new zero-day with a patched vulnerability from 2021, which could have allowed the attacker to bypass the patch.

However, Cisco has now dismissed this theory. They stated this in a company statement. “The CVE-2021-1435 that had previously been mentioned is no longer assessed to be associated with this activity,” it said.

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