CVE-2025-20176
Published: 05 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20176 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 23.6% 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 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
Timely application of vendor patches directly remediates the SNMP parsing flaw causing device reloads.
Implements protections against denial-of-service attacks from crafted SNMP requests that trigger unexpected reloads.
Ensures secure error handling during SNMP request parsing to prevent uncaught exceptions leading to DoS conditions.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct exploitation of SNMP parsing flaw (improper error handling) via crafted authenticated requests to trigger device reload/DoS matches 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-2025-20176 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 2025-02-05, 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-248 (Uncaught Exception).
An attacker could 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 would cause the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition.
Cisco has published a security advisory with details on the vulnerability, affected releases, and mitigation steps, available at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snmp-dos-sdxnSUcW.
Details
- CWE(s)