Medium severity · published Sep 16, 2026
CVE-2026-20248
Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software TCP DNS Denial of Service Vulnerability
6.8
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A vulnerability in the DNS over TCP implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the TCP DNS response handler to unexpectedly restart, causing the device to reload.
This vulnerability is due to a logic error when parsing a DNS query and tracking the size of the incoming buffers. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by formatting a crafted reply to a DNS query sent from the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition.
Note: The attacker must be able to respond to DNS queries from the device, either by controlling the DNS service or through a machine-in-the-middle attack.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 39% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CS
Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software · Cisco
9.16.1; 9.16.1.28; 9.16.2; 9.16.2.3; 9.16.2.7; 9.16.2.11; +34 more · source: vendor
CS
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software · Cisco
7.0.0; 7.0.0.1; 7.0.1; 7.0.1.1; 7.0.2; 7.2.0; +34 more · source: vendor
Affected product
CS
Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Cisco
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20248
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20248
sec.cloudapps.cisco.com
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-tcpdns-dos-p6dUnjr5
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