CVE intelligence

CVE-2026-20248

Vulnerability intelligence

Published Sep 16, 2026Sources checked Sep 26, 2026

6.8MEDIUMCVSS out of 10

What this means

Review the available evidence

CVE-2026-20248 and is rated Medium severity with a CVSS score of 6.8. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.

CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog

EPSS0.3%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability

Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field

Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships

Overview

What is CVE-2026-20248?

A vulnerability in the DNS over TCP implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the TCP DNS response handler to unexpectedly restart, causing the device to reload. This vulnerability is due to a logic error when parsing a DNS query and tracking the size of the incoming buffers. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by formatting a crafted reply to a DNS query sent from the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition. Note: The attacker must be able to respond to DNS queries from the device, either by controlling the DNS service or through a machine-in-the-middle attack.