CVE-2025-20220VulnerabilityPublished 14 Aug 2025Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-20220: Cisco Firepower Management Center · OS Command Injection

Affects Cisco Firepower Management CenterSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.0 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.0Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 6% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Aug 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Cisco Cisco Firepower Management Center	Affected =7.2.6 =7.2.7 =7.2.8 =7.2.8.1 =7.2.9 =7.4.1 =7.4.1.1 =7.4.2 =7.4.2.1 =7.6.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Restrict administrative access to Cisco FMC and FTD CLI interfaces strictly to trusted personnel and secure management networks to reduce the risk of local exploitation. 2. Enforce strong authentication mechanisms and monitor for suspicious administrator account activity to detect potential credential compromise. 3. Apply the latest Cisco patches and updates as soon as they become available for the affected FMC and FTD versions. 4. Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to limit the number of users with Administrator privileges. 5. Use network segmentation to isolate management interfaces from general user networks and untrusted hosts. 6. Regularly audit and review CLI command usage and logs for anomalous or unauthorized commands that could indicate exploitation attempts. 7. Employ endpoint protection and host-based intrusion detection on devices hosting FMC to detect unusual OS-level activities. 8. Consider deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrative access to further reduce the risk of credential misuse. 9. Maintain an incident response plan that includes procedures for containment and remediation of compromised firewall management systems. 10. Stay informed through Cisco security advisories and threat intelligence feeds for updates on exploit availability and mitigation guidance.

Description

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system as root. This vulnerability is due to improper input validation for specific CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by injecting operating system commands into a legitimate command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to escape the restricted command prompt and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need valid Administrator credentials. For more information about vulnerable scenarios, see the Details ["#details"] section of this advisory.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-20220 is the potential for an authenticated local attacker with Administrator privileges to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of Cisco FMC and FTD devices. This can lead to complete compromise of the firewall management infrastructure, including unauthorized access to sensitive security configurations, manipulation or disabling of firewall policies, and potential pivoting to other network segments. Confidentiality and integrity of the managed network environment are at high risk. Although availability is not directly impacted, the attacker could disrupt security monitoring and enforcement, indirectly affecting network availability and resilience. Organizations relying on Cisco FMC for centralized firewall management, especially those in critical infrastructure sectors, government, finance, and large enterprises, could face significant operational and security consequences. The requirement for Administrator credentials and local access limits the attack surface but insider threats or compromised admin accounts could exploit this vulnerability. The absence of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as exploit code could be developed given the medium severity and straightforward exploitation conditions.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-fmc-ftd-cmdinj-PhE7kmT (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 22:21 UTC

Technical details

References

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