How severe is CVE-2024-20481?

CVE-2024-20481 has a CVSS score of 5.8/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-20481?

Affected package information for CVE-2024-20481 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2024-20481?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2024-20481 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2024-20481 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2024-20481, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-20481?

CVE-2024-20481 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 11.1%, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score warrants monitoring and prompt remediation.

Is CVE-2024-20481 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2024-20481 (Cisco ASA and FTD Denial-of-Service Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2024-10-24. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2024-11-14. The required action was: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-20481?

CVE-2024-20481 is classified as CWE-772 (CWE-772). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2024-20481?

CVE-2024-20481 affects cisco adaptive security appliance software (199 versions, e.g. 9.8.1, 9.8.1.5, 9.8.1.7…); cisco firepower threat defense software (90 versions, e.g. 6.2.3, 6.2.3.1, 6.2.3.2…). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2024-20481 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-20481 was published on October 23, 2024 and was last updated on October 28, 2025. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2024-10-24 — agencies required to remediate by 2024-11-14

CVE-2024-20481

MEDIUM

A vulnerability in the Remote Access VPN (RAVPN) service of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated,…

Published

Oct 23, 2024

Updated

Oct 28, 2025

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

1 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

11.1%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Moderate Risk94th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

This vulnerability is due to resource exhaustion. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large number of VPN authentication requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources, resulting in a DoS of the RAVPN service on the affected device. Depending on the impact of the attack, a reload of the device may be required to restore the RAVPN service. Services that are not related to VPN are not affected.

Cisco Talos discussed these attacks in the blog post Large-scale brute-force activity targeting VPNs, SSH services with commonly used login credentials.

Affected Products

2 products · 289 configurations

adaptive security appliance softwarecisco

199 versions

9.8.19.8.1.59.8.1.79.8.29.8.2.89.8.2.149.8.2.159.8.2.179.8.2.209.8.2.249.8.2.269.8.2.28

Application

firepower threat defense softwarecisco

90 versions

6.2.36.2.3.16.2.3.26.2.3.36.2.3.46.2.3.56.2.3.66.2.3.76.2.3.86.2.3.96.2.3.106.2.3.11

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

A vulnerability in the Remote Access VPN (RAVPN) service of Cisco Adapti…

cisa.govCISAOct 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

A vulnerability in the Remote Access VPN (RAVPN) service of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) of the RAVPN service. This vulnerability is due to resource exhaustion. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large number of VPN authentication requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust resources, resulting in a DoS of the RAVPN service on the affected device. Depending on the impact of

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2024-20481 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2024-20481 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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