Vulnerability · Published Sep 24, 2025 · Assigned by cisco

CVE-2025-20338

Medium 6.0

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Cisco IOS XE Software from Cisco. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 22% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.0Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 77.9% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user arguments that are passed to specific CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the device CLI with valid administrative (level 15) credentials and using crafted commands at the CLI prompt. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Cisco Cisco IOS XE Software 3.5.0E3.5.1E3.5.2E3.5.3E3.11.1S3.11.2S3.11.0S3.11.3S

Weakness: CWE-141 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

References