CVE-2025-20181 Security feature bypass in IOS

Medium 6.8 Published 7 May 2025 Updated 7 May 2025

An attacker with local access or physical presence can bypass boot signature verification to execute persistent arbitrary code on Cisco Catalyst switches.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2025-20181?

CVE-2025-20181 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Ios, 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 Cisco IOS Software for Cisco Catalyst 2960X, 2960XR, 2960CX, and 3560CX Series Switches could allow an authenticated, local attacker with privilege level 15 or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust. This vulnerability is due to missing signature verification for specific files that may be loaded during the device boot process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by placing a crafted file into a specific location on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code at boot time. 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.

Weakness: CWE-347

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20181?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Ios.

How do I fix CVE-2025-20181?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20181 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2025-20181 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20181 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Ios vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-95h6-vgwg-qcqc.