CVE-2025-20338 Command injection in Cisco IOS XE Software

Medium 6.0 Published 24 Sep 2025 Updated 26 Feb 2026

An authenticated local attacker with admin privileges can execute arbitrary root commands via insufficient CLI argument validation in Cisco IOS XE.

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-2025-20338?

CVE-2025-20338 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 24 Sep 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 CLI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user arguments that are passed to specific CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the device CLI with valid administrative (level 15) credentials and using crafted commands at the CLI prompt. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root.

Weakness: CWE-141

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20338?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Ios Xe.

How do I fix CVE-2025-20338?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20338 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2025-20338 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20338 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Ios Xe vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-5gjp-3q99-vxx5.