CVE-2025-20313
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-20313 is a medium-severity Path Traversal: '.../...//' (CWE-35) vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 6.7 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked at the 9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-31029
Vulnerability Data
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS XE Software of could allow an authenticated, local attacker with level-15 privileges or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust.…
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These vulnerabilities are due path traversal and improper image integrity validation. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute persistent code on the underlying operating system. Because this allows the attacker to bypass a major security feature of the device, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details ["#details"] section of this advisory. ERP
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Input validation directly neutralizes path sequences so the traversal cannot be introduced or exploited.
Enforces access authorizations on the resulting pathname, blocking traversal attempts from succeeding.
Enforces information flow rules that stop unauthorized directory escapes via crafted paths.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any successful traversal by limiting accessible resources.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that neutralize traversal sequences.
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.
Security testing in development can detect path-traversal flaws before release.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path-handling controls that directly mitigate path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file-path construction and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require proper directory restrictions and input sanitization to prevent traversal.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path concatenation and mandate canonicalization routines.
Information access restriction limits file reachability but does not address the input-validation flaw itself.