# CVE-2025-20119: Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Authenticated Local Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An authenticated local attacker can exploit a race condition to overwrite system files, causing a denial of service on Cisco APIC.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 26 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 3 Mar 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-62xm-fg6r-jmpc

## What is CVE-2025-20119?

CVE-2025-20119 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), published on 26 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the system file permission handling of Cisco APIC could allow an authenticated, local attacker to overwrite critical system files, which could cause a DoS condition. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials.

This vulnerability is due to a race condition with handling system files. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by doing specific operations on the file system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to overwrite system files, which could lead to the device being in an inconsistent state and cause a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20119?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-20119?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20119 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-20119 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20119 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)

- [CVE-2021-1393](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1393/): Cisco Application Services Engine Unauthorized Access Vulnerabilities (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-1396](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1396/): Cisco Application Services Engine Unauthorized Access Vulnerabilities (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-1577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1577/): Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Arbitrary File Read and Write Vulnerability (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2023-20011](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20011/): Cross-site request forgery in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-1578](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1578/): Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-20119 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-20119 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), published on 26 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20119 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20119/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20119/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20119
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20119
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20119

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20119/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.