CVE-2025-20261: Cisco IMC SSH Priv Escalation to Internal Services
CVE-2025-20261 Published on June 4, 2025

Cisco Integrated Management Controller Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the SSH connection handling of Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS B-Series, UCS C-Series, UCS S-Series, and UCS X-Series Servers could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to access internal services with elevated privileges. This vulnerability is due to insufficient restrictions on access to internal services. An attacker with a valid user account could exploit this vulnerability by using crafted syntax when connecting to the Cisco IMC of an affected device through SSH. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access internal services with elevated privileges, which may allow unauthorized modifications to the system, including the possibility of creating new administrator accounts on the affected device.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-20261 can be exploited with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
NETWORK
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
LOW
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints

The software establishes a communication channel to (or from) an endpoint for privileged or protected operations, but it does not properly ensure that it is communicating with the correct endpoint.


Products Associated with CVE-2025-20261

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Affected Versions

Cisco Unified Computing System (Managed): Cisco Unified Computing System (Standalone):

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.21%
Percentile
43.49%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.