CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-20338 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.7

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.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.7 (3.1)
Published
2025-09-24
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-141

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.0e
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.0sq
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.1e
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.1sq
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.2e
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.5.2sq

Showing 6 representative product identities from 374 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

General vulnerability remediation

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Confirm the affected component, deployment paths, reachable interfaces, and enabled features from inventories and configuration, without probing production destructively.
  • Compare the advisory's affected conditions with the repository lockfiles, build manifests, artifacts, and runtime inventory.
  • Identify data sensitivity, trust boundaries, and privilege level for every confirmed affected deployment.

Remediate safely

  • Apply a vendor-supported fix or remove the affected component or feature; record the selected change and its source in the repository.
  • Update direct and transitive dependency locks, generated artifacts, deployment manifests, and asset inventories together.
  • Add a regression test for the documented unsafe condition using inert inputs and preserve rollback instructions.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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