CVE-2025-20341
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 Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges to Administrator on an affected system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted HTTP request to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform unauthorized modifications to the system, including creating new user accounts or elevating their own privileges on an affected system. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid credentials for a user account with at least the role of Observer.
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 confidenceThis is an authenticated privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance. The flaw exists due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input in HTTP request handling, allowing an attacker with Observer-level credentials to submit crafted HTTP requests that elevate their privileges to Administrator level, enabling unauthorized system modifications including account creation.
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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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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Confirm Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance deploymentIdentify the installed product by checking system inventory, appliance hostname, or network documentation that lists Cisco Catalyst Center or DNA Center virtual applianceAffected if The environment uses Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance for network management
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Check installed version against fixed releasesAccess the appliance admin interface or use CLI command 'show version' to retrieve the running version, then compare against Cisco's published fixed versions in the security advisoryAffected if The installed version predates the fixed release or is unpatched
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Verify HTTP management interface exposureReview firewall rules, ACLs, or network segmentation to determine if the Catalyst Center web interface (typically port 443/HTTPS) is accessible from untrusted networksAffected if The management interface is exposed beyond trusted administrative networks
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Audit administrator accounts for unauthorized creationsLog into the admin UI, navigate to Users and Roles administration, and review all accounts with Administrator role, checking for unknown accounts or those created without proper approvalAffected if There are administrator accounts that were not created through authorized procedures
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Review HTTP access logs for privilege escalation indicatorsExamine Catalyst Center logs (system logs, audit logs) for HTTP requests from Observer users that include unusual parameters or role-change requests, particularly occurring outside normal administrative windowsAffected if Logs show suspicious HTTP activity from lower-privileged accounts attempting elevation
A defender is affected if they run an unpatched Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance with the HTTP management interface accessible to users holding Observer-level credentials
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-provided patch or upgrade to a fixed version of Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance as specified in Cisco's security advisory. Restrict network access to the management interface to minimize exposure until the patch can be applied.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-20341 — 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-2025-20341 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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