CVE-2023-20198

CRITICALNVD 10.010.0—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 10.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-10-16), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 10.0 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 4 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
10.0
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS: 100%CVSS: 10.0Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.

CVSS v3
10.0
EG Score
10.0(high)
EPSS
99.9%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

October 16, 2023

Last Modified

October 28, 2025

Advisory Details (2)

Auto-updated Jul 11, 2026
⚠️ Active exploitation confirmed. Patch available. Sources: cisa.
cisa Patch Available🔴 Active Exploitation

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-20198
generic

Multiple Vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS XE Software Web UI Feature

https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-webui-privesc-j22SaA4z

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 49× in last 7d / 197× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 323 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-17 16:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-07-17 12:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-07-17 08:39 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-17 08:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-07-17 04:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-07-17 00:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-07-16 20:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  9. 2026-07-16 16:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-07-16 12:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-07-16 08:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-07-16 04:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-07-16 00:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-15 20:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
  16. 2026-07-15 16:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-07-15 15:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-07-15 12:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-07-15 07:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-07-15 03:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-07-14 23:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  22. 2026-07-14 19:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-07-14 18:05 UTCCISA KEV update
  24. 2026-07-14 15:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-07-14 11:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-14 07:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-07-14 03:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-07-13 23:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-07-13 19:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-07-13 17:07 UTCCISA KEV update
  6. 2026-07-13 15:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-07-13 11:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-07-13 07:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-07-13 03:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-07-12 23:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-07-12 19:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-07-12 15:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-07-12 11:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-12 07:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-07-12 02:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-07-11 22:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-07-11 18:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-07-11 14:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-07-11 10:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-11 06:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-07-11 02:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-07-10 22:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-07-10 18:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  26. 2026-07-10 17:52 UTCCISA KEV update
  27. 2026-07-10 14:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  28. 2026-07-10 10:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-07-10 06:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-07-10 02:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-07-09 22:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  32. 2026-07-09 18:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-07-09 14:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-07-09 10:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-07-09 06:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-07-09 02:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
  37. 2026-07-08 21:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  38. 2026-07-08 17:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  39. 2026-07-08 13:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  40. 2026-07-08 09:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-07-08 05:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  42. 2026-07-08 01:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  43. 2026-07-07 21:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  44. 2026-07-07 19:01 UTCCISA KEV update
  45. 2026-07-07 17:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  46. 2026-07-07 17:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  47. 2026-07-07 13:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  48. 2026-07-07 09:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  49. 2026-07-07 05:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-07-07 01:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-07-06 21:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  52. 2026-07-06 17:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-07-06 13:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  54. 2026-07-06 09:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  55. 2026-07-06 05:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  56. 2026-07-06 01:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
  57. 2026-07-05 20:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  58. 2026-07-05 16:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-07-05 12:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  60. 2026-07-05 08:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
  61. 2026-07-05 04:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  62. 2026-07-05 00:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  63. 2026-07-04 20:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  64. 2026-07-04 16:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  65. 2026-07-04 12:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-07-04 08:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  67. 2026-07-04 04:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  68. 2026-07-04 00:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  69. 2026-07-03 20:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-07-03 16:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  71. 2026-07-03 12:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-07-03 08:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  73. 2026-07-03 04:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  74. 2026-07-03 00:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  75. 2026-07-02 19:58 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(10 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (10 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCW01fh4cker/CVE-2023-20198-RCE
    First seen Apr 25, 2024

    CVE-2023-20198-RCE, support adding/deleting users and executing cli commands/system commands.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCsmokeintheshell/CVE-2023-20198
    First seen Nov 16, 2023

    CVE-2023-20198 Exploit PoC

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCRevoltSecurities/CVE-2023-20198
    First seen Nov 3, 2023

    An Exploitation script developed to exploit the CVE-2023-20198 Cisco zero day vulnerability on their IOS routers

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCfox-it/cisco-ios-xe-implant-detection
    First seen Oct 23, 2023

    Cisco IOS XE implant scanning & detection (CVE-2023-20198, CVE-2023-20273)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCShadow0ps/CVE-2023-20198-Scanner
    First seen Oct 23, 2023

    This is a webshell fingerprinting scanner designed to identify implants on Cisco IOS XE WebUI's affected by CVE-2023-20198 and CVE-2023-20273

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCPushkarup/CVE-2023-20198
    First seen Oct 23, 2023

    A PoC for CVE 2023-20198

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCiveresk/cve-2023-20198
    First seen Oct 20, 2023

    1vere$k POC on the CVE-2023-20198

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCsohaibeb/CVE-2023-20198
    First seen Oct 20, 2023

    CISCO CVE POC SCRIPT

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCTounsi007/CVE-2023-20198
    First seen Oct 18, 2023

    CVE-2023-20198 PoC (!)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCZephrFish/CVE-2023-20198-Checker
    First seen Oct 17, 2023

    CVE-2023-20198 & 0Day Implant Scanner

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2023-20198?
CVE-2023-20198 is a critical vulnerability published on October 16, 2023. Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues.…
When was CVE-2023-20198 disclosed?
CVE-2023-20198 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on October 16, 2023, with the most recent update on October 28, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-20198 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2023-20198 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on October 16, 2023, affecting Cisco IOS XE Web UI. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-20198?
CVE-2023-20198 has a CVSS v3 base score of 10.0 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2023-20198?
CVE-2023-20198 affects Cisco IOS XE Web UI. The full affected-products list, including version ranges and fixed versions, is shown in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2023-20198?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-20198, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2023-20198

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2023-20198?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Start Free Scan →Browse All CVEs