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CVE-2025-20334VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-20334: Cisco IOS XE Software · Command Injection

Affects Cisco IOS XE SoftwareSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
8.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 42% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 2026-10-26.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Cisco Cisco IOS XE SoftwareAffected
  • =17.9.5
  • =17.9.6
  • =17.9.7
  • =17.12.2
  • =17.12.3
  • =17.12.4
  • =17.12.5
  • =17.13.1
  • =17.14.1
  • =17.15.1
  • =17.15.2
  • =17.16.1
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediately restrict administrative access to Cisco IOS XE devices to trusted personnel and networks using strong authentication methods such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). 2. Implement strict network segmentation and firewall rules to limit access to the HTTP API subsystem only to authorized management hosts. 3. Educate administrators about phishing and social engineering risks to prevent inadvertent execution of malicious links. 4. Monitor device logs and network traffic for unusual API calls or command execution patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. 5. Apply Cisco security advisories and patches as soon as they become available for the affected IOS XE versions. 6. Consider disabling or restricting the HTTP API subsystem if not required for operational purposes. 7. Use intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with signatures tuned to detect exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. 8. Regularly audit device configurations and user privileges to minimize the attack surface. 9. Maintain an incident response plan tailored to network infrastructure compromise scenarios to rapidly contain and remediate potential breaches.

Description

A vulnerability in the HTTP API subsystem of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow a remote attacker to inject commands that will execute with root privileges into the underlying operating system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker with administrative privileges could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to an affected system and performing an API call with crafted input. Alternatively, an unauthenticated attacker could persuade a legitimate user with administrative privileges who is currently logged in to the system to click a crafted link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as the root user.

References

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