Cisco IOS XE Local Auth Bypass via Path Traversal & Image Validation
CVE-2025-20313 Published on September 24, 2025

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. 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

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-20313 can be exploited with local system access, and requires 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:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
HIGH
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

Path Traversal: '.../...//'

The software uses external input to construct a pathname that should be within a restricted directory, but it does not properly neutralize '.../...//' (doubled triple dot slash) sequences that can resolve to a location that is outside of that directory.


Products Associated with CVE-2025-20313

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Cisco IOS XE
 

Affected Versions

Cisco IOS XE Software:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.11%
Percentile
28.78%

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.