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Mallory
Medium

OSPF update packet processing buffer overflow DoS in Cisco Secure Firewall ASA/FTD

IdentifiersCVE-2026-20020CWE-120

CVE-2026-20020 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in the OSPF protocol implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Software and Cisco Secure FTD Software. The issue is caused by insufficient input validation while processing OSPF update packets, which allows an adjacent attacker to send crafted OSPF update packets that trigger a buffer overflow condition. Successful exploitation causes the affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a denial-of-service condition. If OSPF authentication is enabled, exploitation additionally requires knowledge of the configured OSPF authentication secret key.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

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Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause an affected Cisco Secure Firewall ASA/FTD device to reload, producing a denial-of-service condition (loss of availability and disruption of routing/forwarding while the device restarts).

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Limit OSPF adjacency exposure to trusted neighbors only (e.g., ensure OSPF is not enabled on untrusted/edge interfaces and restrict L2/L3 reachability to OSPF-speaking segments). Enable OSPF authentication to add a key requirement for exploitation. (Additional vendor-specific mitigations are not provided in the supplied content.)

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply Cisco-provided fixed software that addresses the insufficient input validation in OSPF update packet processing for Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and Cisco Secure FTD. (Specific fixed releases are not provided in the supplied content.)
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
Cisco SystemsAdaptive Security Appliance Softwareoperating_system
Cisco SystemsFirepower Threat Defenseapplication
Cisco SystemsSecure Firewall Asa Softwareapplication
Cisco SystemsSecure Ftd Softwareapplication

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware

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Detection signatures

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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Social activity2

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