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Secure Firewall Management CenterApplication · Cisco

CVE-2025-20148

HIGH · 8.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-14
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
91/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject arbitrary HTML content into a device-generated document. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied data. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting malicious content to an affected device and using the device to generate a document that contains sensitive information. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to alter the standard layout of the device-generated documents, read arbitrary files from the underlying operating system, and conduct server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid credentials for a user account with at least the role of Security Analyst (Read Only).

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 · high confidence

A stored HTML injection vulnerability in Cisco FMC's web-based management interface allows authenticated Security Analyst+ users to inject malicious content into device-generated documents. This can be leveraged to read arbitrary OS files and perform SSRF attacks, indicating the injection likely enables JavaScript execution or file inclusion.

MitigationApply the vendor patch from Cisco immediately. Until then, restrict user accounts to minimum necessary privileges and monitor for suspicious document generation requests.

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
Secure Firewall Management CenterApplication
Affected:= 7.0.6= 7.0.6.1= 7.0.6.2= 7.0.6.3= 7.2.4= 7.2.4.1= 7.2.5= 7.2.5.1= 7.2.5.2= 7.2.6= 7.2.7= 7.2.8

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Cisco FMC is deployed
    Check if the Cisco Firepower Management Center web interface is accessible at your management URL, or verify the device hostname and system information via CLI with 'show version' or 'show inventory'
    Affected if The target system is a Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center appliance
  2. Identify installed FMC version
    Log into the FMC web interface and navigate to Help > About, or run 'show version' via CLI to display the running software version
    Affected if The installed version matches any of these: 7.0.6, 7.0.6.1, 7.0.6.2, 7.0.6.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.4.1, 7.2.5, 7.2.5.1, 7.2.5.2, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, or 7.2.8
  3. Verify FMC web interface is enabled and accessible
    Confirm the web-based management interface is active by attempting to access the FMC HTTPS URL, or check system settings via CLI with 'show http-server'
    Affected if The FMC web interface is enabled and reachable over the network
  4. Review user accounts with Security Analyst or higher roles
    Log into FMC as admin and navigate to System > Users > User Management, or use the CLI 'show user-account' to list all local users and their assigned roles
    Affected if Any user accounts exist with Security Analyst (Read Only) role or higher privileges

A system is affected if it runs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center version 7.0.6 through 7.2.8 and has the web interface accessible with at least one user holding Security Analyst or higher role.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor patch from Cisco immediately. Until then, restrict user accounts to minimum necessary privileges and monitor for suspicious document generation requests.

Recommended fix High confidence

Secure Firewall Management Center 7.0.7

  1. 1. Verify current FMC version by navigating to the FMC web interface and checking the Help > About page
  2. 2. If running version 7.0.6, 7.0.6.1, 7.0.6.2, or 7.0.6.3, plan for an upgrade to version 7.0.7
  3. 3. Before upgrading, take a complete backup of the FMC configuration
  4. 4. Schedule a maintenance window as the upgrade will require a brief downtime
  5. 5. Download Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center software version 7.0.7 from Cisco.com
  6. 6. Navigate to System > Updates > Product Updates in the FMC web interface
  7. 7. Upload and install the 7.0.7 update package
  8. 8. After installation, verify the new version by checking Help > About
Caveat Standard FMC upgrade - expect brief downtime; review release notes for any configuration changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Secure Firewall Management Center Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-20148 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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