CVE-2025-20172
Published: 05 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20172 is a high-severity Uncaught Exception (CWE-248) 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 46.6% 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-11 (Error Handling).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly mitigates the SNMP parsing vulnerability by requiring timely identification, reporting, and correction of known flaws through vendor patches.
Addresses the root cause of improper error handling in SNMP request parsing that leads to uncaught exceptions and device crashes or process restarts.
Prevents exploitation by enforcing validation of crafted SNMP inputs to block malformed requests from triggering denial-of-service conditions.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Improper SNMP request parsing triggers uncaught exception leading to process crash or device reload, directly enabling application/system DoS via crafted authenticated requests.
NVD Description
A vulnerability in the SNMP subsystem of Cisco IOS Software, Cisco IOS XE Software, and Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a DoS condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper…
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error handling when parsing SNMP requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SNMP request to an affected device. For Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software, a successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. For Cisco IOS XR Software, a successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the SNMP process to restart, resulting in an interrupted SNMP response from an affected device. Devices that are running Cisco IOS XR Software will not reload. 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-2025-20172 is a vulnerability in the SNMP subsystem of Cisco IOS Software, Cisco IOS XE Software, and Cisco IOS XR Software. It stems from improper error handling when parsing SNMP requests, affecting SNMP versions 1, 2c, and 3. An authenticated, remote attacker could exploit this issue by sending a crafted SNMP request to an affected device, with a 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 with CWE-248 (Uncaught Exception).
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker requires valid SNMP credentials: a read-write or read-only community string for SNMP v2c or earlier, or valid SNMP user credentials for v3. A successful attack on Cisco IOS or IOS XE devices causes the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. On Cisco IOS XR devices, it causes the SNMP process to restart, interrupting SNMP responses without triggering a full device reload.
The Cisco Security Advisory provides details on affected versions, workarounds, and patches for mitigation: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snmp-dos-sdxnSUcW.
Details
- CWE(s)