Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-3565 can make Cisco Firepower Threat Defense forward traffic that policy should have blocked, or drop traffic that should pass. The issue affects TCP Intercept policy handling, so business risk is mainly policy enforcement failure at a network security control.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate firewall-control integrity issue. Prioritize confirmation on perimeter or segmentation FTD devices because failed policy enforcement can undermine access restrictions without requiring authentication.
Technical view
The vulnerability is in Cisco FTD TCP Intercept processing when the embryonic connection limit is reached. Crafted traffic matching a TCP Intercept-enabled policy can cause incorrect detection engine policy matching, bypassing Access Control, Geolocation, or Service Policy decisions.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to Cisco Firepower Threat Defense deployments using TCP Intercept-related policy behavior. The provided bundle does not identify affected version ranges, so teams must confirm scope against Cisco’s advisory and local configurations.
Exploitation context
The source bundle describes unauthenticated remote exploitation with low attack complexity. It does not provide evidence of active exploitation, and the CVE is not marked as CISA KEV in the provided data.
Researcher notes
Key missing evidence is affected version detail in the provided bundle. Research should focus on TCP Intercept configuration, embryonic connection limits, and policy paths where incorrect detection-engine matching changes allow or drop outcomes.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco’s advisory for affected releases and vendor-recommended fixes.
- Inventory Cisco FTD systems and prioritize internet-facing or boundary enforcement devices.
- Validate policies that rely on TCP Intercept, Geolocation, or Service Policy enforcement.
- Monitor Cisco PSIRT updates for fixed versions or operational workarounds.
Validation and detection
- Identify Cisco Firepower Threat Defense deployments in production.
- Check whether TCP Intercept is configured on access-control or service policies.
- Compare running FTD versions against Cisco’s advisory.
- Review logs for unexpected allowed or dropped traffic around protected policies.
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-284: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup
Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. 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-2020-3565 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 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/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:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N3.91.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.8MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20201021 Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software TCP Intercept 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.
Improper Access Control
Improper Access Control represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
