Cisco is warning that a high-severity denial-of-service vulnerability in Secure Firewall ASA and Threat Defense (FTD) software is being actively exploited in attacks to remotely crash affected devices. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20349, has a severity score of 8.6 and impacts devices running Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) or Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) software with certain remote access services enabled. In a security advisory published today, Cisco said the vulnerability is caused by insufficient error checking while processing HTTP requests. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to the Remote Access SSL VPN service on an affected device," Cisco explains in the advisory. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition." The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication or user interaction when SSL listen sockets are enabled. Vulnerable configurations include IKEv2 Remote Access VPN with client services, SSL VPN, and Zero Trust Network Access on FTD devices. Cisco says Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) software is not affected. Cisco has released hot fixes for affected ASA 9.16, 9.18, 9.20, 9.22, 9.23, and 9.24 releases, as well as FTD releases 7.0, 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 7.7, and 10.0. There are no workarounds for the vulnerability, and Cisco strongly recommends that customers upgrade to a fixed software release to...
Cisco warns of ASA and FTD VPN flaw exploited to crash devices
BleepingComputer
·Lawrence Abrams
·Published Aug 11, 2026
·Updated
Affected Software
12 affected components
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.16<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.18<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.20<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.22<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.23<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)>=9.24<hot fix release (unspecified)
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=7.0
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=7.2
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=7.4
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=7.6
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=7.7
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD)=10.0
Frequently Asked Questions
1
What is the main topic of this article?
The article discusses a high-severity denial-of-service vulnerability affecting Cisco's Secure Firewall ASA and Threat Defense software.
2
What security implications are discussed in the article?
The article highlights that the vulnerability allows attackers to remotely crash affected devices, posing significant operational risks.
3
What is the CVE identifier for the vulnerability mentioned?
The vulnerability is tracked under the CVE identifier CVE-2026-20349.
4
What severity score is assigned to this vulnerability?
The vulnerability has a severity score of 8.6, indicating a high level of risk.
5
Which specific Cisco software products are affected by this vulnerability?
The affected products include Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) software.