Application Policy Infrastructure ControllerApplication · Cisco
CVE-2025-20119
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA vulnerability in the system file permission handling of Cisco APIC could allow an authenticated, local attacker to overwrite critical system files, which could cause a DoS condition. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. This vulnerability is due to a race condition with handling system files. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by doing specific operations on the file system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to overwrite system files, which could lead to the device being in an inconsistent state and cause a DoS condition.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceA race condition in Cisco APIC's system file permission handling allows an authenticated local attacker with administrative credentials to overwrite critical system files by performing specific file system operations, potentially causing a DoS condition and leaving the device in an inconsistent state.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Application Policy Infrastructure ControllerApplication
= 3.2\(1l\)= 3.2\(1m\)= 3.2\(2l\)= 3.2\(2o\)= 3.2\(3i\)= 3.2\(3j\)= 3.2\(3n\)= 3.2\(3o\)= 3.2\(3r\)= 3.2\(3s\)= 3.2\(4d\)= 3.2\(4e\)CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Identify Cisco APIC versionRun 'show version' or access the APIC controller GUI to view the installed firmware version under Administration > Controller Management > Controller NodesAffected if The installed version matches any of: 3.2(1l), 3.2(1m), 3.2(2l), 3.2(2o), 3.2(3i), 3.2(3j), 3.2(3n), 3.2(3o), 3.2(3r), 3.2(3s), 3.2(4d), 3.2(4e)
-
Verify administrative access controlsReview local user accounts and their privilege levels in the APIC GUI under Admin > AAA > Users or via 'show aaa local-user' CLI commandAffected if Multiple local administrative accounts exist or unauthorized users have admin-level privileges
-
Inspect system file integrityCompare current system file checksums or timestamps against known baselines using 'ls -la' on critical system directories, or review audit logs under Admin > Audit LogsAffected if Critical system files show unexpected modification timestamps or unauthorized changes compared to baseline
-
Check for denial of service indicatorsReview system health and cluster status via 'show cluster health' or through the APIC GUI Dashboard, and check for unexpected service restartsAffected if The device exhibits inconsistent state, unexpected service failures, or cluster health degraded alerts
A user is affected if they run any of the listed Cisco APIC versions AND have local administrative users (including potentially unauthorized ones) who could exploit the race condition to overwrite system files.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply the vendor patch from Cisco when available. In the meantime, restrict local administrative access to trusted personnel only and monitor for any unauthorized file system modifications.
Fix this in Application Policy Infrastructure Controller
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,992.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-20119 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-20119 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data