Vulnerability Database

326,214

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-20185

A vulnerability in the implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid administrator credentials.

This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to an attacker.

  • Published: Feb 5, 2025
  • Updated: Nov 16, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2025-20185
  • Severity: Low
  • Exploit:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Low
  • Score: 3.4
  • AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

CWEs:

Software From Fixed in
cisco / asyncos 13.0.0-392 13.0.0-392.x
cisco / asyncos 13.0.5-007 13.0.5-007.x
cisco / asyncos 13.5.1-277 13.5.1-277.x
cisco / asyncos 13.5.4-038 13.5.4-038.x
cisco / asyncos 14.0.0-698 14.0.0-698.x
cisco / asyncos 14.2.0-620 14.2.0-620.x
cisco / asyncos 14.2.1-020 14.2.1-020.x
cisco / asyncos 14.3.0-032 14.3.0-032.x
cisco / asyncos 15.0.0-104 15.0.0-104.x
cisco / asyncos 15.0.1-030 15.0.1-030.x
cisco / asyncos 15.0.3-002 15.0.3-002.x
cisco / asyncos 15.5.0-048 15.5.0-048.x
cisco / asyncos 15.5.1-055 15.5.1-055.x
cisco / asyncos 15.5.2-018 15.5.2-018.x

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.