Ios Xr
CVE-2025-20177
MEDIUM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Insufficient privilege handling
|
| Impact | CVSS score of 6.7 (MEDIUM). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.02%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | Successful exploitation could compromise the medium-severity affected system. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026
A vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to bypass Cisco IOS XR image signature verification and load unverified software on an. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Affects your stack
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-274. A vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to bypass Cisco IOS XR image signature verification and load unverified software on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have root-system privileges on the affected device. This vulnerability is due to incomplete validation of files in the boot verification process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the system configuration options to bypass some of the integrity checks that are performed during the boot process. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to control the boot configuration, which could enable them to bypass the requirement to run Cisco-signed images or alter the security properties of the running system. Note: Because exploitation of this vulnerability could result in the attacker bypassing Cisco image verification, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High. Affected products include: Cisco Ios Xr.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
A vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to bypass Cisco IOS XR image signature verification and load unverified software on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have root-system privileges on the affected device.
This vulnerability is due to incomplete validation of files in the boot verification process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the system configuration options to bypass some of the integrity checks that are performed during the boot process. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to control the boot configuration, which could enable them to bypass the requirement to run Cisco-signed images or alter the security properties of the running system. Note: Because exploitation of this vulnerability could result in the attacker bypassing Cisco image verification, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High.
Executive ViewAI
CVE-2025-20177 presents notable security risk rated CVSS 6.7. Exploitation could compromise the security of affected deployments. Organizations should apply vendor updates when available and monitor for exploitation.
Apply vendor patch. If patching is delayed: restrict network access and enable monitoring.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
Denial of service against HTTP/2 server implementations allows remote unauthenticated attackers to exhaust server resour
A vulnerability in the web services of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software, Cisco Secure Fi
A vulnerability in the enhanced Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) boot loader for Cisco IOS XR 64-bit Software could a
A vulnerability in the sysadmin virtual machine (VM) on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers running Cisco
A vulnerability in the classic access control list (ACL) compression feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an una
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary co
Insufficient CLI argument validation in Cisco IOS XR Software enables authenticated local attackers to achieve root-leve
Cisco IOS XR Software contains a task group mapping flaw in a specific CLI command that allows authenticated local attac
A vulnerability in the JSON-RPC API feature in Cisco Crosswork Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) and ConfD that is use
A vulnerability in the Topology Discovery Service of Cisco One Platform Kit (onePK) in Cisco IOS Software, Cisco IOS XE
A vulnerability in the Cisco Discovery Protocol implementation for Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated,
Multiple Buffer Overflow vulnerabilities in the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software, Ci
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB