# CVE-2025-20122: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

> An authenticated local attacker can exploit insufficient input validation in the CLI to gain root privileges on the underlying operating system.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 May 2025
- **Updated:** 26 Feb 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mmr9-p6pg-2mp3

## What is CVE-2025-20122?

CVE-2025-20122 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 7 May 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 CLI of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly Cisco SD-WAN vManage, could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain privileges of the root user on the underlying operating system.

This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An authenticated attacker with read-only privileges on the SD-WAN Manager system could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to the CLI of the SD-WAN Manager. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain root privileges on the underlying operating system.

Weakness: CWE-300 (Channel Accessible by Non-Endpoint)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20122?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-20122?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20122 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-20122 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20122 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager

- [CVE-2026-20182](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20182/): Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller Authentication Bypass (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20127](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20127/): Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller and Manager Authentication Bypass (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-76504](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-76504/): Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Hex Encoding (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20245](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20245/): Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-20775](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20775/): Cisco SD-WAN Path Traversal (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-20122 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-20122 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 7 May 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-2025-20122 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager. 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-2025-20122/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20122/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20122
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20122
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20122

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20122/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.