CVE-2025-20241 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2025-20241
Vulnerability Scoring

7.4
/10
Very High Risk

Highly exploitable, CVE-2025-20241 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: Low
    Exploits can be performed without significant complexity or special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Adjacent_network
    Attack Vector Under Analysis
  • Privileges Required: None
    No privileges are required for exploitation.
  • Scope: Changed
    Successful exploitation can impact components beyond the vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: None
    No user interaction is necessary for exploitation.

CVE-2025-20241 Details

Status: Received on 27 Aug 2025, 17:15 UTC

Published on: 27 Aug 2025, 17:15 UTC

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

psirt@cisco.com

CVSS3 Type

Primary

CVSS3 Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVE-2025-20241 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2025-20241: A vulnerability in the Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) feature of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause the IS-IS process to unexpectedly restart, which could cause an affected device to reload. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation when parsing an ingress IS-IS packet. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted IS-IS packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the unexpected restart of the IS-IS process, which could cause the affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. Note: The IS-IS protocol is a routing protocol. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be Layer 2-adjacent to the affected device.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2025-20241

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2025-20241 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2025-20241

With low attack complexity and no required privileges, CVE-2025-20241 is an easy target for cybercriminals. Organizations should prioritize immediate mitigation measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2025-20241, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2025-20241, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: None
    CVE-2025-20241 has no significant impact on data confidentiality.
  • Integrity: None
    CVE-2025-20241 poses no threat to data integrity.
  • Availability: High
    CVE-2025-20241 can disrupt system operations, potentially causing complete denial of service (DoS).

CVE-2025-20241 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-733

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables CAPEC-10 This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the adversary finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
  • Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow CAPEC-24 In this attack, the idea is to cause an active filter to fail by causing an oversized transaction. An attacker may try to feed overly long input strings to the program in an attempt to overwhelm the filter (by causing a buffer overflow) and hoping that the filter does not fail securely (i.e. the user input is let into the system unfiltered).
  • Overflow Variables and Tags CAPEC-46 This type of attack leverages the use of tags or variables from a formatted configuration data to cause buffer overflow. The adversary crafts a malicious HTML page or configuration file that includes oversized strings, thus causing an overflow.
  • Buffer Overflow in an API Call CAPEC-8 This attack targets libraries or shared code modules which are vulnerable to buffer overflow attacks. An adversary who has knowledge of known vulnerable libraries or shared code can easily target software that makes use of these libraries. All clients that make use of the code library thus become vulnerable by association. This has a very broad effect on security across a system, usually affecting more than one software process.
  • Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities CAPEC-9 This attack targets command-line utilities available in a number of shells. An adversary can leverage a vulnerability found in a command-line utility to escalate privilege to root.

Protect Your Infrastructure against CVE-2025-20241: Combat Critical CVE Threats

Stay updated with real-time CVE vulnerabilities and take action to secure your systems. Enhance your cybersecurity posture with the latest threat intelligence and mitigation techniques. Develop the skills necessary to defend against CVEs and secure critical infrastructures. Join the top cybersecurity professionals safeguarding today's infrastructures.

Other 5 Recently Published CVEs Vulnerabilities

  • CVE-2025-58050 – The PCRE2 library is a set of C functions that implement regular expression pattern matching. In version 10.45, a heap-buffer-overflow read vulnera...
  • CVE-2025-55495 – Tenda AC6 V15.03.06.23_multi was discovered to contain a buffer overflow via the list parameter in the fromSetIpMacBind function.
  • CVE-2025-58218 – Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in enituretechnology Small Package Quotes – USPS Edition allows Object Injection. This issue affect...
  • CVE-2025-58217 – Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in GeroNikolov Instant Breaking News allows Stored XSS. This issue affects Instant Breaking News: f...
  • CVE-2025-58216 – Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in jgwhite33 WP Thumbtack Review Slider allows S...