Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:LSummary
CVE-2025-20349 is a medium-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Center. Its CVSS base score is 6.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked at the 29th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and 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-2025-20349 is a vulnerability in the REST API of Cisco Catalyst Center that stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input in REST API request parameters. This flaw, classified under CWE-78 (OS Command Injection), enables an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands within a restricted container running as the root user. The vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst Center deployments and was published on 2025-11-13 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L).
An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted API request to an affected device, provided they possess valid credentials for a user account with at least the Observer role. Successful exploitation allows the injection and execution of arbitrary commands in the restricted container with root privileges, potentially leading to limited confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts as per the CVSS vector.
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-dnac-ci-ZWLQVSwT.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-175336
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability in the REST API of Cisco Catalyst Center could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands in a restricted container as the root user. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input in REST…
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API request parameters. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted API request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to inject arbitrary commands that would then be executed in a restricted container with root privileges. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid credentials for a user account with at least the role of Observer.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.2.5V1.2.8V15.2.5
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.
Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.
Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.
Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.
Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.
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's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.
Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).
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 and code review target insecure use of operating-system command interfaces, catching command-injection flaws introduced during development.