BLOG | Oct 14, 2025

CISA Emergency Directive 25‑03: What It Means for Cisco ASA and Firepower Devices

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently issued Emergency Directive 25‑03, targeting critical vulnerabilities in Cisco ASA and Firepower devices. This post breaks down what the directive entails, why it matters, and how Forward Networks can help organizations validate configurations, assess impact, and respond quickly using Network Query Engine (NQE)

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Chris Naish
Federal Systems Engineer

Who should read this post?

Security operations teams managing Cisco ASA or Firepower devices
Network reliability engineers responding to government advisories
Risk management professionals working with public sector or critical infrastructure

What is covered in this content?

Summary of CISA Emergency Directive 25‑03
Steps for identifying affected Cisco devices
How to use NQE to validate configuration status
Proactive response workflows using Forward Networks

CISA’s Directive: The Core Requirements

CISA Emergency Directive 25‑03 mandates that federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies immediately identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in Cisco ASA and Firepower devices. The vulnerabilities, which affect SSL VPN components, can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access and pivot across networks.

CISA’s actions are based on observed exploit activity in the wild and the critical role these devices play in public sector infrastructure. The directive outlines several required actions, including asset identification, status validation, vulnerability mitigation, and reporting by a strict deadline.

The urgency of this directive signals its importance across both federal and enterprise networks, especially in verticals like defense, energy, and finance.

Identifying Impacted Cisco ASA and Firepower Devices

To comply with the directive, organizations must first inventory affected Cisco ASA and Firepower devices. Since ASA software versions and deployment modes vary widely across networks, manual identification can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Forward Networks’ digital twin offers a unified, always-up-to-date view of every Cisco ASA and Firepower device in your environment. It enables teams to filter by platform, OS version, or custom tags. This makes it easy to isolate impacted devices and prioritize response efforts.

Forward also supports tagging synthetic or lab devices, allowing teams to focus only on production assets during vulnerability response.

Using NQE to Validate Configurations

Once impacted devices are identified, the next step is verifying their configuration against Cisco’s recommended hardening steps and CISA’s mitigation checklist.

Forward’s Network Query Engine (NQE) allows users to write policy-as-code queries that check for the presence or absence of specific settings across all ASA and Firepower devices. These might include:

Whether webvpn is enabled
If specific patches or version numbers are deployed
Which interface configurations expose SSL services

Teams can run these checks in seconds across thousands of devices, identifying violations and exporting lists for immediate action. This replaces hours of manual CLI audits with structured, repeatable, and exportable queries.

Accelerating Response with Forward Networks

In urgent vulnerability scenarios, every hour counts. Forward Networks empowers security and network operations teams to work together by:

Providing immediate visibility into all Cisco ASA and Firepower deployments
Enabling config validation through simple, version-controlled NQE queries
Surfacing policy violations and gaps in remediation progress
Offering audit-ready reports for compliance and reporting

By reducing time to identify, validate, and act, Forward helps organizations meet the CISA directive faster, with higher confidence and better documentation.

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