Early reviews indicated the Cisco GUI tools for managing the device were lacking.
[4] A security flaw was identified when users customized the Clientless SSL VPN option of their ASA's but was rectified in 2015.
[6] In 2017 The Shadow Brokers revealed the existence of two privilege escalation exploits against the ASA called EPICBANANA[7] and EXTRABACON.
[15] On the low end models, some features are limited, and uncrippling happens with installation of a Security Plus License.
[13] Cisco AnyConnect is an extra licensable feature which operates IPSec or SSL tunnels to clients on PCs, iPhones or iPads.
It included features to reduce the need for other equipment, such as an inbuilt switch, and power over Ethernet ports.
[11] Cisco determined that most of the low end devices had too little capacity to include the features needed, such as anti-virus, or sandboxing, and so introduced a new line of next-generation firewalls called Firepower.