CVE-2022-20795
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software AnyConnect SSL VPN Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
5.8
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software AnyConnect SSL VPN Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.
- Record
CVE-2022-20795- CVSS 3.1
- 5.8 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-345
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-26045
5.8
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.
- Record
EUVD-2022-26045- CVSS 3.1
- 5.8 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-4cwx-r6vp-5886
7.5
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive...
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.
- Record
GHSA-4cwx-r6vp-5886- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-345
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
5.8
A vulnerability in the implementation of the Datagram TLS (DTLS) protocol in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to suboptimal processing that occurs when establishing a DTLS tunnel as part of an AnyConnect SSL VPN connection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of crafted DTLS traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources on the affected VPN headend device. This could cause existing DTLS tunnels to stop passing traffic and prevent new DTLS tunnels from establishing, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: When the attack traffic stops, the device recovers gracefully.
- Record
CVE-2022-20795- CVSS 3.1
- 5.8 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-345
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases, published | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2022-20795 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.8) in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance, published April 21, 2022. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.70%, the 53rd percentile. No source names a fixed version.