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

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

- **Severity:** Low 3.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **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:** 5 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6wm7-ghvr-4m2g

## 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 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20185?

It affects 1 product.


Products: 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.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Asyncos

- [CVE-2025-20393](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20393/): Cisco Multiple Products Improper Input Validation (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-76519](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-76519/): Cisco Secure Email Gateway Relative Path Traversal (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-76461](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-76461/): Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-20435](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20435/): Command injection in Cisco Secure Web Appliance (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-15956](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15956/): Cisco Web Security Appliance Unauthorized Device Reset Vulnerability (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-20185 and fix it if it is affected.

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

Affected product: Cisco Asyncos. 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-2025-20185/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20185/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20185
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20185
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20185

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20185/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.