CVE-2025-20169
Published: 05 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20169 is a high-severity Buffer Access with Incorrect Length Value (CWE-805) vulnerability in Cisco Ios. Its CVSS base score is 7.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked in the top 32.5% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SI-11 (Error Handling).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Applying vendor patches directly remediates the improper error handling flaw in the SNMP subsystem, preventing exploitation via crafted requests.
Secure error handling ensures that malformed SNMP requests do not cause device crashes or reloads during parsing.
Denial-of-service protection mechanisms, such as rate limiting SNMP traffic, block crafted requests from triggering unexpected device reloads.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct exploitation of SNMP parsing flaw to trigger device reload and DoS via crafted authenticated requests (T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation).
NVD Description
A vulnerability in the SNMP subsystem of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a DoS condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper error handling when parsing…
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SNMP requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SNMP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects SNMP versions 1, 2c, and 3. To exploit this vulnerability through SNMP v2c or earlier, the attacker must know a valid read-write or read-only SNMP community string for the affected system. To exploit this vulnerability through SNMP v3, the attacker must have valid SNMP user credentials for the affected system.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-20169 is a vulnerability in the SNMP subsystem of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software that could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The issue stems from improper error handling when parsing SNMP requests, affecting SNMP versions 1, 2c, and 3. An attacker could exploit this by sending a crafted SNMP request to the device, potentially causing it to reload unexpectedly and disrupting network operations.
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker requires some level of authentication depending on the SNMP version in use. For SNMP v1 or v2c, the attacker must know a valid read-only or read-write SNMP community string for the affected system. For SNMP v3, valid SNMP user credentials are necessary. A successful exploit results in the device reloading, leading to a DoS condition with no impact on confidentiality or integrity, as reflected in the CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.7 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H) and associated CWE-805.
The Cisco Security Advisory provides detailed guidance on mitigation and affected versions; practitioners should consult https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snmp-dos-sdxnSUcW for patch information, workarounds, and verification steps.
Details
- CWE(s)