CVE-2025-20185 Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Secure Email Gateway, and Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Low 3.4 Published 5 Feb 2025 Updated 5 Feb 2025

An authenticated local attacker can elevate privileges to root by exploiting a flaw in the remote access password generation algorithm.

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

What is CVE-2025-20185?

CVE-2025-20185 is a low-severity vulnerability in Cisco Asyncos, published on 5 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 implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to an attacker.

Weakness: CWE-250

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20185?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Asyncos.

How do I fix CVE-2025-20185?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20185 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2025-20185 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20185 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Asyncos vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-6wm7-ghvr-4m2g.