{"id":64277,"date":"2025-08-24T02:11:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T02:11:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T00:37:27","slug":"cve-2025-20253-critical-vulnerability-in-ikev2-feature-of-cisco-software-could-lead-to-denial-of-service-dos-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20253-critical-vulnerability-in-ikev2-feature-of-cisco-software-could-lead-to-denial-of-service-dos-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-20253: Critical Vulnerability in IKEv2 Feature of Cisco Software Could Lead to Denial of Service (DoS) Attack<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, it is essential to stay updated with the latest vulnerabilities that could potentially put systems and data at risk. This blog post focuses on CVE-2025-20253, a recently disclosed vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) feature of several Cisco software products. This vulnerability, if exploited, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a device to reload, resulting in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20217-denial-of-service-vulnerability-in-snort-3-detection-engine-of-cisco-secure-firewall-threat-defense-software\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"76927\">Denial of Service<\/a> (DoS) condition. Given the wide usage of Cisco&#8217;s software in industries across the globe, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43275-critical-race-condition-vulnerability-in-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71621\">vulnerability presents a significant risk and could potentially disrupt critical<\/a> services and operations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-20253<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (CVSS Score: 8.6)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49691-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-media-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72204\">Potential system<\/a> compromise and\/or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2911358759\" 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-2025-20133-remote-access-ssl-vpn-vulnerability-in-cisco-secure-firewall-asa-software-and-secure-ftd-software\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"76829\">Cisco IOS Software<\/a> | Unspecified<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20243-cisco-secure-firewall-asa-software-and-secure-ftd-software-dos-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79632\">Cisco IOS XE Software<\/a> | Unspecified<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20136-denial-of-service-vulnerability-in-cisco-secure-firewall-asa-and-ftd-software\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"76917\">Secure Firewall ASA<\/a> Software | Unspecified<br \/>\nSecure FTD Software | Unspecified<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8028-critical-vulnerability-in-firefox-and-thunderbird-due-to-incorrect-computation-of-branch-address\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"73789\">vulnerability arises due<\/a> to the improper processing of IKEv2 packets by the affected software. An attacker could exploit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27061-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-video-packet-parsing\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74365\">vulnerability by sending specially crafted IKEv2 packets<\/a> to an affected device. Upon receipt of these packets, the system could enter into an infinite loop, rapidly exhausting system resources. This would eventually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27055-memory-corruption-leads-to-potential-system-compromise-during-image-encoding\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74200\">lead to a system<\/a> reboot, effectively causing a Denial of Service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3759538818\" 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>Here is a conceptual example of how an attacker might craft a malicious IKEv2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27058-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-packet-data-processing\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74727\">packet to exploit this vulnerability<\/a>. Please note that this is a hypothetical example and does not represent actual exploit code.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">from scapy.all import *\n# Define the source and destination IP addresses\nsrc_ip = &quot;attacker_IP&quot;\ndst_ip = &quot;target_IP&quot;\n# Create an IP packet with the defined source and destination IPs\nip = IP(src=src_ip, dst=dst_ip)\n# Create a malformed IKEv2 packet\nikev2 = IKEv2(init_SPI=b&#039;1234567890123456&#039;, exch_type=34, flags=&#039;Response&#039;)\n# Send the crafted packet\nsend(ip\/UDP(sport=500, dport=500)\/ikev2)<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the `exch_type=34` and `flags=&#8217;Response&#8217;` parameters are used to create a malformed IKEv2 packet, triggering the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27050-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74766\">vulnerability and causing a system<\/a> reload.<br \/>\nIt is crucial to note that this vulnerability can be mitigated by applying vendor patches or using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary solution. As always, it&#8217;s recommended to apply patches promptly to ensure protection against such exploits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, it is essential to stay updated with the latest vulnerabilities that could potentially put systems and data at risk. This blog post focuses on CVE-2025-20253, a recently disclosed vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) feature of several Cisco software products. This vulnerability, if exploited, 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":[97],"attack_vector":[87],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-64277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-apple","vendor-cisco","product-cisco-ios-xe","attack_vector-dos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64277","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=64277"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72068,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64277\/revisions\/72068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=64277"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=64277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}