Findings

Vulnerability · CVE-2026-20290

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Software Snort 2 SSL/TLS Denial of Service Vulnerability

Published Sep 16, 2026 · Cisco · evidence confidence high

A vulnerability in SSL/TLS certificate parsing in the Snort 2 Detection Engine of Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 2 Detection Engine to restart. This vulnerability is due to incomplete validation of the SSL certificate. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SSL connection setup request to be parsed by Snort 2. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the Snort 2 Detection Engine to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

Grounded briefings

Catalog interpretations for three audiences. Each brief cites ingested metadata and the original advisories below. They are not independent research and they do not invent exploit steps.

Executive

CVE-2026-20290 is a unknown public vulnerability record for Cisco. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. This summary is a catalog interpretation of the ingested metadata and cites the original advisories below.

System administrator

Identify whether Cisco is in your estate, then compare installed versions with the affected ranges. Affected version ranges have not been ingested yet. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. Prefer the vendor or distribution advisory linked in Sources before changing production systems. This is a catalog interpretation, not a runbook.

Security analyst

Signals on file: EPSS 0.2%. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Sources contributing to this record: cisco, epss. Public exploit references, when present, are outbound links only and are not proof of active exploitation. This is a catalog interpretation of stored metadata.

Exploitation and remediation

  • Exploitation evidence

    Not listed as known exploited in CISA KEV. Not in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV.

  • Patch and remediation

    No required-action text is stored yet. Use the vendor or CERT links in Sources for patch availability.

  • Safe detection guidance

    Compare installed versions with the affected ranges below and verify the advisory from the original publisher. This site stores metadata and outbound links only; it does not ship exploit code or proof-of-concept payloads.

Technology hubs

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

No public source repository is identified for this product.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Sep 16, 2026 · Cisco Security Advisories

    Detected

    A vulnerability in SSL/TLS certificate parsing in the Snort 2 Detection Engine of Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 2 Detection Engine to restart. This vulnerability is due to incomplete validation of the SSL certificate. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SSL connection setup reques

Sources

  • Cisco Security AdvisoriesVendor advisoryCVE-2026-20290

    A vulnerability in SSL/TLS certificate parsing in the Snort 2 Detection Engine of Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 2 Detection Engine to restart. This vulnerability is due to incomplete validati

    sec.cloudapps.cisco.com
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2026-20290

    30-day exploitation probability 0.2%

    first.org