CVE-2025-20155

MEDIUM

Cisco IOS XE - Privilege Escalation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

A vulnerability in the bootstrap loading of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to write arbitrary files to an affected system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of the bootstrap file that is read by the system software when a device is first deployed in SD-WAN mode or when an administrator configures SD-Routing on the device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying a bootstrap file generated by Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, loading it into the device flash, and then either reloading the device in a green field deployment in SD-WAN mode or configuring the device with SD-Routing. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform arbitrary file writes to the underlying operating system.

Scores

CVSS v3 6.0
EPSS 0.0011
EPSS Percentile 29.4%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact total

Details

CWE
CWE-1287
Status published
Products (28)
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.4
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.4a
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.5
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.5a
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.5b
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.5e
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.5f
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.6
cisco/ios_xe 17.9.6a
cisco/ios_xe 17.11.99sw
... and 18 more
Published May 07, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026