Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw lets remote, unauthenticated traffic using a protocol on an unusual port slip past Cisco Firepower filtering for the first detected flow. It does not grant system takeover, but it can weaken perimeter controls and allow malicious requests to reach protected systems that policy should block.
Executive priority
Prioritize as a moderate perimeter-control weakness. It is not described as device takeover, but it can reduce confidence in filtering controls protecting internal systems. Address through Cisco guidance, asset inventory, and focused policy review.
Technical view
CVE-2019-1980 affects Cisco Firepower Threat Defense, FirePOWER Services for ASA, and Firepower Management Center protocol detection. Improper detection of initial protocol use on nonstandard ports can cause filtering bypass. After initial detection, later flows on that port are detected and enforced according to policy. CVSS 3.0 is 5.8.
Likely exposure
Likely exposure is organizations using affected Cisco Firepower products for traffic filtering, especially policies depending on protocol detection across nonstandard ports. Version details are unspecified in the supplied CVE data; confirm against Cisco's advisory and deployed software inventory.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Exploitation is remote, unauthenticated, and network-reachable, but the documented impact is policy bypass for traffic on nonstandard ports, not device compromise.
Researcher notes
The supplied record provides affected product families but not exact vulnerable versions or fixed releases. The key behavior is first-flow protocol detection failure on nonstandard ports, with later flows handled normally once detected. Do not infer broader product exposure beyond the listed Cisco software.
Mitigation direction
- Check Cisco's advisory for affected releases and vendor remediation guidance.
- Inventory Cisco Firepower FTD, FirePOWER Services for ASA, and FMC deployments.
- Review filtering policies that depend on protocol detection on nonstandard ports.
- Treat protected-system logs as important for detecting bypassed malicious requests.
Validation and detection
- Confirm deployed Cisco product names and software versions against Cisco's advisory.
- Identify rules relying on protocol detection instead of explicit port and service constraints.
- Review logs for unexpected allowed traffic on nonstandard ports.
- Verify policy behavior after any vendor-recommended remediation is applied.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-264: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2019-1980 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.8 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N3.91.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
5.8MediumVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20190816 Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Nonstandard Protocol Detection Bypass VulnerabilityCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
