A vulnerability in the remote access VPN feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a brute force attack in an attempt to identify valid username and password combinations or an authenticated, remote attacker to establish a clientless SSL VPN session with an unauthorized user. This vulnerability is due to improper separation of authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) between the remote access VPN feature and the HTTPS management and site-to-site VPN features. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by specifying a default connection profile/tunnel group while conducting a brute force attack or while establishing a clientless SSL VPN session using valid credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to achieve one or both of the following: Identify valid credentials that could then be used to establish an unauthorized remote access VPN session. Establish a clientless SSL VPN session (only when running Cisco ASA Software Release 9.16 or earlier). Notes: Establishing a client-based remote access VPN tunnel is not possible as these default connection profiles/tunnel groups do not and cannot have an IP address pool configured. This vulnerability does not allow an attacker to bypass authentication. To successfully establish a remote access VPN session, valid credentials are required, including a valid second factor if multi-factor authentication (MFA) is configured. Cisco will release software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.

A vulnerability in the normalization functionality of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software, Cisco FirePOWER Services Software for ASA, and Cisco Firepower Management Center Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass filtering protections. The vulnerability is due to insufficient normalization of a text-based payload. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending traffic that contains specifically obfuscated payloads through an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to bypass filtering and deliver malicious payloads to protected systems that would otherwise be blocked.

A vulnerability in the protocol detection component of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software, Cisco FirePOWER Services Software for ASA, and Cisco Firepower Management Center Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass filtering protections. The vulnerability is due to improper detection of the initial use of a protocol on a nonstandard port. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending traffic on a nonstandard port for the protocol in use through an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to bypass filtering and deliver malicious requests to protected systems that would otherwise be blocked. Once the initial protocol flow on the nonstandard port is detected, future flows on the nonstandard port will be successfully detected and handled as configured by the applied policy.

A vulnerability in the stream reassembly component of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software, Cisco FirePOWER Services Software for ASA, and Cisco Firepower Management Center Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass filtering protections. The vulnerability is due to improper reassembly of traffic streams. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted streams through an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to bypass filtering and deliver malicious requests to protected systems that would otherwise be blocked.