Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software TCP DNS Denial of Service Vulnerability

Summary

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.

Timeline

1. Sep 16, 2026, 8:17 PM UTCCVE published
2. Sep 17, 2026, 1:32 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Sep 18, 2026, 7:08 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• Cisco Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

  9.16.1, 9.16.1.28, 9.16.2, 9.16.2.3, 9.16.2.7, 9.16.2.11, 9.16.2.13, 9.16.2.14, 9.16.3.3, 9.16.3, 9.16.3.14, 9.18.1, 9.16.3.15, 9.18.1.3, 9.18.2, 9.16.3.19, 9.16.3.23, 9.18.2.5, 9.16.4, 9.18.2.7, 9.19.1, 9.16.4.9, 9.18.2.8, 9.16.4.14, 9.18.3, 9.19.1.5, 9.16.4.18, 9.19.1.9, 9.18.3.39, 9.16.4.19, and 103 more

• Cisco Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software

  7.0.0, 7.0.0.1, 7.0.1, 7.0.1.1, 7.0.2, 7.2.0, 7.0.2.1, 7.0.3, 7.2.0.1, 7.0.4, 7.2.1, 7.0.5, 7.3.0, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.3.1, 7.2.4, 7.0.6, 7.2.5, 7.2.4.1, 7.3.1.1, 7.4.0, 7.0.6.1, 7.2.5.1, 7.4.1, 7.2.6, 7.0.6.2, 7.4.1.1, 7.2.7, 7.2.5.2, and 30 more

References 1