Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-20265

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center 7.0.7 … 7.7.0

Published
14 August 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 10.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.15 96th percentile
Risk Priority 85 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-20265 is a critical-severity Injection (CWE-74) vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. Its CVSS base score is 10.0 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-20265 is a critical command injection vulnerability in the RADIUS subsystem implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software. It stems from a lack of proper handling of user input during the authentication phase, enabling an unauthenticated, remote attacker to inject arbitrary shell commands that are executed by the device. The vulnerability affects FMC Software instances configured for RADIUS authentication on the web-based management interface, SSH management, or both, and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H), associated with CWE-74.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input in the credentials field during authentication attempts against the configured RADIUS server. A successful exploit allows the attacker to execute arbitrary shell commands at a high privilege level on the affected device, potentially leading to full compromise of the FMC Software.

Security advisories, including the official Cisco Security Advisory at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-fmc-radius-rce-TNBKf79, provide details on mitigation and available patches. Additional coverage from sources like BleepingComputer and The Register outlines the need to apply vendor-recommended updates promptly for affected systems.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the RADIUS subsystem implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to inject arbitrary shell commands that are executed by the device.  This vulnerability is due to a lack of…

more

proper handling of user input during the authentication phase. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input when entering credentials that will be authenticated at the configured RADIUS server. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands at a high privilege level. Note: For this vulnerability to be exploited, Cisco Secure FMC Software must be configured for RADIUS authentication for the web-based management interface, SSH management, or both.

CWE(s)
CWE-74

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1221 Template Injection Stealth
Adversaries may create or modify references in user document templates to conceal malicious code or force authentication attempts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
attack.mitre.org →
T1674 Input Injection Execution
Adversaries may simulate keystrokes on a victim’s computer by various means to perform any type of action on behalf of the user, such as launching the command interpreter using keyboard shortcuts, typing an inline script to be executed,…
attack.mitre.org →
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1059.001 PowerShell Execution
Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-20281Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20216Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20284Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20429Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20256Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20283Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20337Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2026-20199Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20057Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-23749Shared CWE-74

Affected Assets

cisco
secure firewall management center
7.0.7, 7.7.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.1
  • V1.2.3
  • V1.2.5
  • V1.2.8

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

SI-10 directly requires validation of information inputs to reject malformed or special-element content before it reaches downstream parsers.

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and output encoding that prevent injection flaws.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches injection vulnerabilities before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging supports detection of injection attempts but does not prevent the weakness.

A.8.16 Monitoring activities partial match
finds

Monitoring activities can identify active injection attacks after they occur.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and output encoding that directly prevent injection flaws.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against injection attacks in software design.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles reduce injection surfaces but do not prescribe specific neutralization techniques.

References