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CVE-2025-20185· NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Secure Email Gateway, and Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 26/100)

  • 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: 0.18% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. Administrator privileges are required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
  • Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 3.4, NVD 6.7.

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

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.

MediumCVSS 6.7 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Feb 5, 2025
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 8th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

26

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
26 / 40 · 6.7 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
6.7
CNA · cisco
3.4
3.3 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

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.

Follow CVE-2025-20185

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Is your version affected? Check it

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.

VendorProduct
ciscoasyncos
ciscosecure email and web manager virtual appliance m100v
ciscosecure email and web manager virtual appliance m300v
ciscosecure email and web manager virtual appliance m600v
ciscosecure email and web manager m170
ciscosecure email and web manager m190
ciscosecure email and web manager m195
ciscosecure email and web manager m380
ciscosecure email and web manager m390
ciscosecure email and web manager m390x
ciscosecure email and web manager m395
ciscosecure email and web manager m680

and 3 more

Affected versions

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

  • cisco asyncos13.0.0-392
  • cisco asyncos13.0.5-007
  • cisco asyncos13.5.1-277
  • cisco asyncos13.5.4-038
  • cisco asyncos14.0.0-698
  • cisco asyncos14.2.0-620
  • cisco asyncos14.2.1-020
  • cisco asyncos14.3.0-032
  • cisco asyncos15.0.0-104
  • cisco asyncos15.0.1-030
  • cisco asyncos15.0.3-002
  • cisco asyncos15.5.0-048
  • cisco asyncos15.5.1-055
  • cisco asyncos15.5.2-018

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 Cisco Secure Email

    • 14.0.0-698, 13.5.1-277, 13.0.0-392, 14.2.0-620, 13.0.5-007, 13.5.4-038, 14.2.1-020, 14.3.0-032, 15.0.0-104, 15.0.1-030, 15.5.0-048, 15.5.1-055 … (+2)affected

  • Cisco Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager

    • 13.6.2-023, 13.6.2-078, 13.0.0-249, 13.0.0-277, 13.8.1-052, 13.8.1-068, 13.8.1-074, 14.0.0-404, 12.8.1-002, 14.1.0-227, 13.6.1-201, 14.2.0-203 … (+9)affected

  • Cisco Cisco Secure Web Appliance

    • 11.8.0-453, 12.5.3-002, 12.0.3-007, 12.0.3-005, 14.1.0-032, 14.1.0-047, 14.1.0-041, 12.0.4-002, 14.0.2-012, 11.8.0-414, 12.0.1-268, 11.8.1-023 … (+28)affected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2025-20393Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Remote Command Execution VulnerabilityKEV
    80Now
  • CVE-2026-76461Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection VulnerabilityKEV
    77This week
  • CVE-2022-20871Cisco Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
    36Monitor
  • CVE-2022-20868A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Email Security Appliance, Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager and Cisco Secure
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2019-15956Cisco Web Security Appliance Unauthorized Device Reset Vulnerability
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2018-15460Cisco Email Security Appliance URL Filtering Denial of Service Vulnerability
    35Monitor

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.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

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.

  • CVE-2024-20435203 days apartA vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary comma
    31Monitor

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

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • Administrator privileges are 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
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-250 · Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

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

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

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

References

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

All records