CVE-2025-20181 - CVE House
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Status published Medium CVE-2025-20181

A vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software for Cisco Catalyst 2960X,...

Vulnerability Description

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.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

IOS
Vulnerable Versions:
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, 15.0(2)EX4, 15.0(2)EX5, 15.0(2)EX8, 15.0(2a)EX5, 15.0(2)EX10, 15.0(2)EX11, 15.0(2)EX13, 15.0(2)EX12, 15.2(2)E, 15.2(3)E, 15.2(2)E1, 15.2(4)E, 15.2(3)E1, 15.2(2)E2, 15.2(2a)E1, 15.2(2)E3, 15.2(2a)E2, 15.2(3)E2, 15.2(3a)E, 15.2(3)E3, 15.2(4)E1, 15.2(2)E4, 15.2(2)E5, 15.2(4)E2, 15.2(3)E4, 15.2(5)E, 15.2(4)E3, 15.2(2)E6, 15.2(5)E1, 15.2(5b)E, 15.2(2)E5a, 15.2(2)E5b, 15.2(4)E4, 15.2(2)E7, 15.2(5)E2, 15.2(6)E, 15.2(4)E5, 15.2(2)E8, 15.2(6)E0a, 15.2(6)E1, 15.2(6)E0c, 15.2(4)E6, 15.2(6)E2, 15.2(2)E9, 15.2(4)E7, 15.2(7)E, 15.2(2)E10, 15.2(4)E8, 15.2(6)E2a, 15.2(6)E2b, 15.2(7)E1, 15.2(7)E0a, 15.2(7)E0b, 15.2(7)E0s, 15.2(6)E3, 15.2(4)E9, 15.2(7)E2, 15.2(7a)E0b, 15.2(4)E10, 15.2(7)E3, 15.2(7)E1a, 15.2(7b)E0b, 15.2(7)E2a, 15.2(4)E10a, 15.2(7)E4, 15.2(7)E3k, 15.2(8)E, 15.2(8)E1, 15.2(7)E5, 15.2(7)E6, 15.2(8)E2, 15.2(4)E10d, 15.2(7)E7, 15.2(8)E3, 15.2(7)E8, 15.2(8)E4, 15.2(7)E9, 15.2(8)E5, 15.2(8)E6, 15.2(7)E10, 15.2(6)EB, 15.2(4)EA7, 15.2(4)EA8, 15.2(4)EA9, 15.2(4)EA9a, 15.0(2)SQD, 15.0(2)SQD1, 15.0(2)SQD2, 15.0(2)SQD3, 15.0(2)SQD4, 15.0(2)SQD5, 15.0(2)SQD6, 15.0(2)SQD7, 15.0(2)SQD8

Timeline

Official Publish: May 7th, 2025
Last Modified: May 7th, 2025
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)