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Background for this topic.
Firewalls are security controls that permit or block network connections according to policy. They can operate at network boundaries, between internal segments, on individual hosts, or in cloud environments. Basic rules use addresses, ports, protocols, and connection state; more advanced firewalls may inspect applications or encrypted traffic where configured. Their purpose is to limit which systems can communicate, not to determine that all permitted traffic is safe.
Security depends heavily on accurate policy and maintenance. Overly broad, obsolete, or conflicting rules can expose services or allow unnecessary lateral movement, while unmanaged administrative interfaces and unpatched firewall software create additional attack surfaces. Practitioners should restrict management access, apply least-privilege rules, review and remove exceptions, and monitor logs for unexpected connections and policy changes. Firewall logs can support investigation, but encryption, evasion, and traffic allowed by policy may limit what the control can detect.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has ordered federal agencies to patch a maximum-severity vulnerability, CVE-2026-20131, in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) by Sunday, March 22. [...]
The ransomware gang, known for double-extortion attacks, had access to a critical Cisco firewall vulnerability weeks before it was publicly disclosed.
Notorious ransomware group Interlock has been exploiting a Cisco zero-day bug since January, AWS says
Cisco’s response to the latest SD-WAN and firewall defects has been fast, but the harder question is how long sophisticated actors had a head start — and what’s already compromised. The post Cisco’s latest vulnerability spree has a more troubling pattern underneath appeared first on CyberScoop.
AWS Researchers Find an Interlock Server Laden With ToolsRansomware hackers exploited a flaw with a maximum vulnerability score in Cisco firewall management software weeks before the networking giant disclosed the vulnerability in early March. The group has focused extensively on critical infrastructure sectors in North America and Europe.
Interlock's post-exploit toolkit exposed Ransomware criminals exploited CVE-2026-20131, a maximum-severity bug in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center software, as a zero-day vulnerability more than a month before Cisco patched the hole, according to Amazon security boss CJ Moses.…
The Interlock ransomware gang has been exploiting a maximum severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Cisco's Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) software in zero-day attacks since late January. [...]
Amazon Threat Intelligence is warning of an active Interlock ransomware campaign that's exploiting a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software