{"id":39034,"date":"2025-05-17T22:22:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T22:22:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-04T00:32:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T06:32:26","slug":"cve-2025-20164-privilege-elevation-vulnerability-in-cisco-industrial-ethernet-switch-device-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20164-privilege-elevation-vulnerability-in-cisco-industrial-ethernet-switch-device-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-20164: Privilege Elevation Vulnerability in Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-20164 is a critical vulnerability found in Cisco\u2019s Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager within the Cisco IOS Software. This vulnerability, if exploited, allows an authenticated, remote attacker to escalate their privileges, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. Given the widespread use of Cisco&#8217;s IOS software in networking environments, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-4335-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-woocommerce-multiple-addresses-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43719\">vulnerability could have far-reaching implications if not promptly addressed<\/a>. It underscores the importance of robustly validating user authorizations, even for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5821-critical-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-case-theme-user-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83350\">authenticated users<\/a>, to preserve system integrity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-20164<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (8.3 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network (Crafted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-4829-critical-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-totolink-http-post-request-handler\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"52882\">HTTP Request<\/a>)<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48340-critical-csrf-vulnerability-in-danny-vink-user-profile-meta-manager-allows-privilege-escalation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"52881\">User account with privilege<\/a> level 5 or above<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required (The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5353-local-authenticated-attacker-exploit-in-ivanti-workspace-control\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"62954\">attacker must be authenticated<\/a>)<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-4372-webaudio-heap-corruption-in-google-chrome-a-potential-gateway-to-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43799\">Potential system compromise<\/a>, data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3777877678\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20182-critical-vulnerability-in-cisco-device-software-allows-dos-attacks\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"46242\">Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device<\/a> Manager | All versions prior to patch<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit takes advantage of insufficient validation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46827-graylog-open-log-management-platform-user-session-cookie-exposure\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"47645\">user authorizations within the Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager<\/a>. An attacker, already authenticated and having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-33117-privileged-user-vulnerability-in-ibm-qradar-siem\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"62953\">user privilege<\/a> level 5 or higher, could send a specially crafted HTTP request to an affected device. The device fails to adequately validate the authorizations of the request, allowing the attacker to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3852-wpshop-2-e-commerce-plugin-privilege-escalation-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43712\">escalate their privileges<\/a> to level 15. This could lead to complete system compromise, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3921-unauthorized-modification-of-data-in-peprodev-ultimate-profile-solutions-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43912\">unauthorized access to sensitive data<\/a> and resources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1518968996\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Below is a conceptual example of how such an HTTP request might look. Please note that this is a simplified and hypothetical representation intended to help readers understand the nature of the exploit.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/device_manager\/privilege\/escalate HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\nAuthorization: Bearer valid_user_token\n{ &quot;new_privilege_level&quot;: &quot;15&quot; }<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the `new_privilege_level` field in the request body is exploited to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47462-cross-site-request-forgery-vulnerability-in-ohidul-islam-challan-leading-to-privilege-escalation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43655\">request an elevation of privileges<\/a>. The affected system, failing to adequately validate this request, may <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-11861-critical-command-injection-vulnerability-in-enersys-ampa-granting-privileged-remote-shell-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"45220\">grant the attacker the requested level 15 privileges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users are encouraged to apply vendor patches as soon as possible. In the interim, or if patching is not immediately possible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) could provide temporary mitigation. These systems should be configured to detect and block anomalous requests, such as those attempting to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3610-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-the-reales-wp-stpt-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"43860\">escalate privileges<\/a>. However, these are temporary measures and do not substitute the need for patching and regularly updating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25180-underprivileged-software-manipulates-gpu-system-calls-for-unauthorized-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88780\">system software<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The CVE-2025-20164 is a critical vulnerability found in Cisco\u2019s Industrial Ethernet Switch Device Manager within the Cisco IOS Software. This vulnerability, if exploited, allows an authenticated, remote attacker to escalate their privileges, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. Given the widespread use of Cisco&#8217;s IOS software in networking environments, this vulnerability could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[77,96],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-39034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-apple","vendor-cisco","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39034"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81590,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39034\/revisions\/81590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=39034"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=39034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}