NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

CVE-2025-20181: A vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software for Cisco Catalyst 2960X, 2960XR, 2960CX, and 3560CX Series Switches could allow an authenticated, loc

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 27/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.19% (FIRST EPSS).
Physical access to the device is required. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

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.

MediumCVSS 6.8 · v3.0—No exploit No fix recorded

BDU:2025-10332

Published: May 7, 2025
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.1% · 9th percentile
CWE: CWE-347

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 27 / 40 · 6.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.1%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: —
CNA · cisco: 6.8; NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
cisco	ios	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios
cisco	catalyst 2960cx-8pc-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960cx-8pc-l
cisco	catalyst 2960cx-8tc-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960cx-8tc-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24pd-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24pd-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24ps-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24ps-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24psq-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24psq-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24psq-l cool	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24psq-l_cool
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24td-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24td-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24ts-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24ts-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-24ts-ll	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-24ts-ll
cisco	catalyst 2960x-48fpd-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-48fpd-l
cisco	catalyst 2960x-48fps-l	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:catalyst_2960x-48fps-l

and 32 more

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

cisco ios15.0(1)ex
cisco ios15.0(1)ey
cisco ios15.0(1)ey1
cisco ios15.0(1)ey2
cisco ios15.0(1)xo
cisco ios15.0(1)xo1
cisco ios15.0(2)ex
cisco ios15.0(2)ex1
cisco ios15.0(2)ex10
cisco ios15.0(2)ex11
cisco ios15.0(2)ex12
cisco ios15.0(2)ex13
cisco ios15.0(2)ex2
cisco ios15.0(2)ex3
cisco ios15.0(2)ex4
cisco ios15.0(2)ex5
cisco ios15.0(2)ex8
cisco ios15.0(2)se8
cisco ios15.0(2)sqd
cisco ios15.0(2)sqd1

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

Cisco IOS
- 15.0(1)XO1, 15.0(1)XO, 15.0(2)XO, 15.0(1)EY, 15.0(1)EY1, 15.0(1)EY2, 15.0(2)SE8, 15.0(1)EX, 15.0(2)EX, 15.0(2)EX1, 15.0(2)EX2, 15.0(2)EX3 … (+28)affected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2018-0171A vulnerability in the Smart Install feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attackerKEV
99Now
CVE-2017-3881A vulnerability in the Cisco Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) processing code in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unautheKEV
99Now
CVE-2017-6736The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem of Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software contains multiple vulnerabilities that could allow KEV
86Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2025-20154May 7, 2025 · Cisco IOS, IOS XE and IOS XR Software TWAMP Denial of Service Vulnerability
34Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2025-20164May 7, 2025 · A vulnerability in the Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager (DM) of Cisco IOS Software could allow an authenticated, remote attac
33Monitor
Later →CVE-2025-20225Aug 14, 2025 · A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) feature of Cisco IOS Software, IOS XE Software, Secure Firewall Adaptive Secu
23Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Physical access to the device is required.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Physical
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-347 · Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-secondary

Root cause

The verifier takes the algorithm to verify with from the token’s own header. Untrusted data ends up deciding its own verification rule.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-347 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1const claims = jwt.verify(token, publicKey);

Fixed

1const claims = jwt.verify(token, publicKey, {
2  algorithms: ["RS256"],
3  issuer: "https://id.example.com",
4  audience: "portal",
5});

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-c2960-3560-sboot-ZtqADrHq

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records