CVE-2025-20118
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller 3.2\(10e\) … 6.1\(1f\)
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2025-20118 is a medium-severity Improper Removal of Sensitive Information Before Storage or Transfer (CWE-212) vulnerability in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller. Its CVSS base score is 4.4 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Unsecured Credentials (T1552); ranked at the 5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to MP-6 (Media Sanitization) and SI-19 (De-identification) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5298
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability in the implementation of the internal system processes of Cisco APIC could allow an authenticated, local attacker to access sensitive information on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. This vulnerability…
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is due to insufficient masking of sensitive information that is displayed through system CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using reconnaissance techniques at the device CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access sensitive information on an affected device that could be used for additional attacks.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V14.2.8V14.3.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires sanitization of media before disposal, release, or reuse, directly stopping sensitive information from remaining in resources made available to unauthorized parties.
Mandates removal of specified PII elements from datasets before further use or sharing, addressing a subset of the improper-removal cases.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Directly addresses removal of confidential data from process memory and similar in-use contexts before exposure.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Explicit information-deletion control directly addresses improper removal of sensitive data.
Data-masking techniques can substitute for removal when full deletion is impractical.
Test-data protection rules require sanitization of production data used in testing.
Classification identifies sensitive data that must be removed before storage or transfer.
Information-transfer rules can require sanitization of sensitive content before sharing.
PII-protection requirements include removing identifiers before storage or disclosure.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (3 rules)
- V-248579 OL 8 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212
- V-248580 OL 8 must prevent kernel profiling by unprivileged users. prevents CWE-212
- V-248551 A sticky bit must be set on all OL 8 public directories to prevent unauthorized and unintended information transferred via shared system resources. prevents CWE-212
Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
- V-271745 OL 9 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230269 RHEL 8 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212