CVE-2025-20175
Published: 05 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20175 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 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
Flaw remediation requires applying vendor patches to directly fix the SNMP parsing vulnerability causing the DoS.
Error handling control mandates proper management of errors during SNMP request parsing to prevent device reloads from crafted inputs.
Information input validation rejects crafted SNMP requests that exploit improper parsing and trigger the DoS condition.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vulnerability in SNMP parsing enables remote authenticated exploitation causing device reload/DoS via application/system crash.
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-2025-20175 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. Published on February 5, 2025, it has 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 is associated with CWE-805.
An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted SNMP request to the affected device. Exploitation requires authentication: for SNMP v2c or earlier, knowledge of a valid read-write or read-only SNMP community string; for SNMP v3, valid SNMP user credentials. A successful exploit causes the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition.
For mitigation details, including available patches and workarounds, refer to the Cisco Security Advisory at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snmp-dos-sdxnSUcW.
Details
- CWE(s)