# CVE-2025-20181: Security feature bypass in IOS

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

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 May 2025
- **Updated:** 7 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-95h6-vgwg-qcqc

## 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 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20181?

It affects 1 product.


Products: 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.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios

- [CVE-2017-12240](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12240/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software DHCP Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-3881](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-3881/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0167](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0167/): Cisco IOS, XR, and XE Software Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6736](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6736/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6737/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-20181 and fix it if it is affected.

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

Affected product: Cisco Ios. 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-2025-20181/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20181/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20181
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20181
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20181

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20181/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.