Detection-engine restart via SSL memory mismanagement
Published Mar 4, 2026 · Updated Mar 4, 2026
Denial of service in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense allows remote attackers to restart its Snort 3 Detection Engine. A memory-management logic error during SSL packet inspection mishandles crafted SSL packets sent through an established connection. Exploitation requires Snort 3 and a nondefault SSL policy to be enabled; successful attacks interrupt inspection by unexpectedly restarting the engine.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense allows remote attackers to restart its Snort 3 Detection Engine. A memory-management logic error during SSL packet inspection mishandles crafted SSL packets sent through an established connection. Exploitation requires Snort 3 and a nondefault SSL policy to be enabled; successful attacks interrupt inspection by unexpectedly restarting the engine.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-20052
- Published
- Mar 4, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 4, 2026
- Vendor
- ClamAV
- Product
- Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense
- Classifications
- CWE-788, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 4, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 4, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=7.4.0
- Affected versionversion=7.4.1
- Affected versionversion=7.4.1.1
- Affected versionversion=7.4.2
- Affected versionversion=7.4.2.1
- Affected versionversion=7.6.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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