CVE-2020-3548

highpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.008 · 58 %ileEURUUS
grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
0.84% (58th) EPSS
CVSS 7.5 · high
Is it mine?
4 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
5 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · fstec_bdu · cisco_csaf

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

A vulnerability in the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol implementation of Cisco AsyncOS software for Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU usage on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to inefficient processing of incoming TLS traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of crafted TLS packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to trigger a prolonged state of high CPU utilization. The affected device would still be operative, but response time and overall performance may be degraded.There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

01

remediations

Vendor fix, mitigation, or workaround guidance, as published by each source.

A vendor fix is available.

02

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

7.5
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 5.3–7.5

v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:Hprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 3.9 · impact 3.6
v3.15.3mediumAV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:Lsecondary · FSTEC (BDU) RU
v3.15.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L/RL:X/RC:X/E:Xsecondary · ENISA EU
v3.15.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:Lsecondary · psirt@cisco.com USexploitability 3.9 · impact 1.4
v3.16.9mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:Usecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
v3.15.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:Lsecondary · Cisco PSIRT US
03

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: partialcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
04

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

CWE-407USCWE-407US
05

affected products (4)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

06

advisories (1)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • cisco-sa-esa-tls-dos-xW53TBhbCisco Email Security Appliance Denial of Service Vulnerability2020-09-02csaf · cisco_csafUS

    A vulnerability in the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol implementation of Cisco AsyncOS software for Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU usage on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to inefficient processing of incoming TLS traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of crafted TLS packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to trigger a prolonged state of high CPU utilization. The affected device would still be operative, but response time and overall performance may be degraded. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. This advisory is available at the following link: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-esa-tls-dos-xW53TBhb ["https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-esa-tls-dos-xW53TBhb"]

07

also known as (4)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

08

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

cnnvdenisa_euvdfstec_bducisco_csafnvdNVDCVE.orgMITRE
published 2024-11-18modified 2026-06-17
09

references (6)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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