CVE-2025-20164
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 Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager (DM) of Cisco IOS Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of authorizations for authenticated users. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to privilege level 15. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid credentials for a user account with privilege level 5 or higher. Read-only DM users are assigned privilege level 5.
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 confidenceThe vulnerability allows authenticated users with privilege level 5 or higher to elevate to privilege level 15 (administrative root) via crafted HTTP requests due to insufficient authorization validation in the Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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.
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Identify device and IOS versionLog into the switch CLI and run 'show version' to confirm the device is a Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch running Cisco IOS Software. Note the exact IOS version string displayed.Affected if Device is a Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch running any IOS version and the Device Manager HTTP interface is accessible
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Verify Device Manager HTTP interface statusRun 'show running-config | include ip http server' or 'show running-config | include ip http secure-server' to check if the HTTP/HTTPS server for Device Manager is enabled.Affected if HTTP or HTTPS server for Device Manager is enabled (ip http server or ip http secure-server appears in the running config)
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Check configured user privilege levelsRun 'show running-config | include username' or 'show privilege' to see what privilege levels are configured for local users. Privilege level 5 is a read-only user account.Affected if Any local user account is configured with privilege level 5 (or a user with read-only access exists)
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Confirm current user privilege levelRun 'show privilege' to display your current privilege level. The vulnerability allows escalation from privilege level 5 to level 15.Affected if Your current session or any configured user has privilege level 5
A user is affected if they are running Cisco IOS on an Industrial Ethernet Switch with Device Manager HTTP interface enabled and have or could obtain a privilege level 5 account.
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 Cisco IOS patch when available. Until then, limit administrative access to only necessary users and monitor for suspicious HTTP activity.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-20164 — 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-2025-20164 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
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- 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
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