CVE-2020-3529

A vulnerability in the SSL VPN negotiation process for Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to inefficient direct memory access (DMA) memory management during the negotiation phase of an SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted Datagram TLS (DTLS) traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust DMA memory on the device and cause a DoS condition.

Weakness

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:

• The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.

• The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html

References

• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-sslvpndma-dos-HRrqB9Yx
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-sslvpndma-dos-HRrqB9Yx