Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager

CVE-2025-20164

Summary

A security vulnerability exists in the Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager within Cisco IOS Software, enabling an authenticated remote attacker to elevate their privileges. This flaw arises from inadequate authorization validation for users. By crafting a specially designed HTTP request, an attacker with valid credentials can exploit this vulnerability, potentially gaining elevated privileges to the highest level (privilege level 15). Users with read-only access are assigned privilege level 5, highlighting the importance of secure credential management and robust authorization checks in preventing exploitation.

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