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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-20313: Cisco IOS XE Software · Path Traversal

Affects Cisco IOS XE SoftwareSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.7 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
6.7Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 7% 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:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 24 Sep 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Cisco Cisco IOS XE SoftwareAffected
  • 17.3.1 – 17.17.1
43 affected builds
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-20313, organizations should prioritize the following actions: 1) Apply Cisco's security patches or updates as soon as they become available for the affected IOS XE versions to remediate the vulnerability. 2) Restrict physical access to network devices to prevent exploitation by unauthenticated attackers with physical presence. 3) Limit and monitor access to devices, ensuring only trusted administrators have level-15 privileges, and enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication. 4) Implement strict network segmentation and access controls to reduce the attack surface and contain potential compromises. 5) Regularly audit device configurations and logs for signs of unauthorized access or suspicious activity. 6) Employ secure boot and image validation features where possible to reinforce the chain of trust. 7) Establish incident response plans specific to network device compromise scenarios. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling privileged access, physical security, and proactive monitoring tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS XE Software of could allow an authenticated, local attacker with level-15 privileges or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust. These vulnerabilities are due path traversal and improper image integrity validation. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute persistent code on the underlying operating system. Because this allows the attacker to bypass a major security feature of the device, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details ["#details"] section of this advisory. ERP

References

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