CVE-2024-20270VulnerabilityPublished 17 Jan 2024Updated 2 Jun 2025

CVE-2024-20270: Cisco BroadWorks · Cross-site Scripting

Affects Cisco BroadWorksSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.8Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 28% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 Jan 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Cisco Cisco BroadWorks	Affected =24.0 =23.0 =22.0 =21.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediate application of Cisco's security updates or patches addressing CVE-2024-20270 is the most effective mitigation. Organizations should verify their BroadWorks version and build and upgrade to a fixed version as recommended by Cisco advisories. 2. Restrict access to the BroadWorks web-based management interface to trusted networks and users only, employing network segmentation and firewall rules to limit exposure. 3. Implement strong multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users accessing the management interface to reduce the risk of compromised credentials enabling exploitation. 4. Conduct user awareness training to recognize and avoid clicking on suspicious or unsolicited links, reducing the risk of social engineering attacks. 5. Employ web application firewalls (WAF) with rules tuned to detect and block XSS payloads targeting the management interface. 6. Monitor logs and user activity on the BroadWorks management interface for unusual behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. 7. Review and harden input validation and output encoding policies if customization or integration with other web components exists. 8. Limit privileges of users accessing the interface to the minimum necessary to reduce the impact of a compromised account. 9. Regularly audit and update security configurations and conduct penetration testing focusing on web interface vulnerabilities. These measures collectively reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation and limit potential damage.

Description

A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco BroadWorks Application Delivery Platform and Cisco BroadWorks Xtended Services Platform could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to conduct a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a user of the interface. This vulnerability exists because the web-based management interface does not properly validate user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to click a crafted link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary script code in the context of the affected interface or access sensitive, browser-based information.

Impact

For European organizations using Cisco BroadWorks platforms, this vulnerability poses a risk to the security of their telecommunication management infrastructure. Since Cisco BroadWorks is widely deployed by service providers and enterprises for unified communications and voice services, exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive management information or session hijacking of privileged users. This could enable attackers to manipulate configuration settings, intercept communications, or pivot to other internal systems. The requirement for authenticated access and user interaction limits the attack surface to internal or trusted users, but social engineering or insider threats could facilitate exploitation. The changed scope indicates that the impact could extend beyond the immediate interface, potentially affecting other integrated systems. Confidentiality and integrity impacts, although rated low, are significant in the context of management interfaces controlling critical communication services. Disruption of these services could indirectly affect business operations and regulatory compliance, especially under stringent European data protection laws. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the widespread use of affected versions and the critical role of BroadWorks in communication services mean that European organizations should prioritize mitigation to prevent potential targeted attacks.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-broadworks-xss-6syj82Ju (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Jul 2025, 17:00 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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