# CVE-2025-20187: Cisco SD-WAN Manager Software Arbitrary File Creation Vulnerability

> Authenticated attackers can exploit improper API validation to perform directory traversal and write arbitrary files to the system.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 May 2025
- **Updated:** 7 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f6m6-q8c2-48mm

## What is CVE-2025-20187?

CVE-2025-20187 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 7 May 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the application data endpoints of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly Cisco SD-WAN vManage, could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to write arbitrary files to an affected system.

This vulnerability is due to improper validation of requests to APIs. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious requests to an API within the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to conduct directory traversal attacks and write files to an arbitrary location on the affected system.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20187?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-20187?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20187 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-20187 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20187 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-2025-20187 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-20187 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 7 May 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20187 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-2025-20187/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20187/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20187
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20187
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20187

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20187/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.