Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-20261, affecting the SSH connection handling of Cisco IMC for various Cisco UCS servers.
This vulnerability is of significant concern due to the potential for an authenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to internal services with elevated privileges. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker could potentially modify system configurations, create new administrator accounts, or even compromise system integrity, leading to potential data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-20261
Severity: Critical (CVSS 8.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Unauthorized access to internal services with elevated privileges, unauthorized system modifications and potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS B-Series | All versions
Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS C-Series | All versions
Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS S-Series | All versions
Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS X-Series Servers | All versions
How the Exploit Works
This vulnerability arises due to an insufficiency in the restrictions on access to internal services within Cisco IMC. An attacker, with a valid user account, can exploit this vulnerability by using specially crafted syntax while connecting to the Cisco IMC of an affected device through SSH. Successful exploitation could result in the attacker gaining access to internal services with elevated privileges.
Conceptual Example Code
The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited:
ssh user@target.example.com
Password:
<strong></strong>
$ echo "Crafted Syntax" | nc localhost internal_service_portIn this conceptual example, the attacker connects to the target device via SSH and uses the ‘netcat’ command (nc) to send a specially crafted syntax to the internal service running on the ‘internal_service_port’. The ‘crafted syntax’ would be designed to exploit the vulnerability and gain unauthorized access with elevated privileges.