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CVE-2025-20140: Cisco IOS XE Software Wireless Network Control Daemon Vulnerability

Overview

The following report provides a detailed analysis of a notable cybersecurity vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-20140. This vulnerability resides in the Wireless Network Control daemon (wncd) of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers. If exploited, it could lead to severe consequences such as a denial of service (DoS) condition, potential system compromise, or data leakage, affecting various businesses and organizations relying on Cisco’s wireless networking solutions.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-20140
Severity: High (7.4)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Denial of Service (DoS), potential system compromise, or data leakage

Affected Products

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Product | Affected Versions

Cisco IOS XE Software | All versions prior to the patch

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability arises from improper memory management within the Wireless Network Control daemon (wncd) of Cisco IOS XE Software. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of IPv6 network requests from an associated wireless IPv6 client to an affected device. If successful, this exploit could cause the wncd process to consume all available memory, leading to the device stopping its response and hence resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

Conceptual Example Code

Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. The attacker would send a series of IPv6 network requests, each potentially causing increased memory consumption on the targeted device.

# Attacker's device (IPv6 client)
for i in {1..100000}
do
# Send network request to the targeted device
curl -6 http://[target_device_ipv6_address]/request_endpoint
done

Please note that this is a conceptual representation and does not represent an actual exploit code.

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Disclaimer:

The information and code presented in this article are provided for educational and defensive cybersecurity purposes only. Any conceptual or pseudocode examples are simplified representations intended to raise awareness and promote secure development and system configuration practices.

Do not use this information to attempt unauthorized access or exploit vulnerabilities on systems that you do not own or have explicit permission to test.

Ameeba and its authors do not endorse or condone malicious behavior and are not responsible for misuse of the content. Always follow ethical hacking guidelines, responsible disclosure practices, and local laws.
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