# [CRIT] CISA KEV: CVE-2020-3452 — Cisco ASA and FTD Read-Only Path Traversal Vulnerability

**Source:** CISA KEV
**Published:** 2021-11-03
**Article:** https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

## Threat Profile

CISA KEV entry. The U.S. federal "Known Exploited Vulnerabilities" catalog only adds CVEs that have been **observed exploited in the wild**. Federal civilian agencies are required to remediate by the published due date; the same prioritisation logic applies to any sensible enterprise SOC.

Vendor / Product: **Cisco ASA and FTD Read-Only Path Traversal**

## Indicators of Compromise

- CVE-2020-3452 — match against your vulnerability scanner

## MITRE ATT&CK

- **T1190 — Exploit Public-Facing Application** (KEV implies active exploitation against exposed assets)

## Recommended hunts

Standard asset-exposure hunt — the canonical Splunk SPL and Defender KQL
live once in [`../_TEMPLATES.md#asset-exposure`](../_TEMPLATES.md#asset-exposure).
Substitute this CVE wherever the template references `<CVE>`:

- **CVE:** `CVE-2020-3452`

## Why this matters

Anything in CISA KEV is *currently* being exploited. Even if your scanners say "not vulnerable" because of patches, it's worth one quick check across your fleet — patch lag is the silent killer. Federal due-date dates also frequently match the timing your organisation will be asked about by auditors / regulators.

## Source body

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) contain an improper input validation vulnerability when HTTP requests process URLs.  An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request containing directory traversal character sequences to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view arbitrary files within the web services file system on the targeted device. Vendor: Cisco, Product: Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). Federal patch due: 2022-05-03. CVE-2020-3452