CVE-2025-20293
MediumCVSS 5.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in the Day One setup process of Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers for Cloud (9800-CL) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access the public-key infrastructure (PKI) server running on an affected device. This is due to incomplete cleanup upon completion of the Day One setup process. An attacker could send SCEP requests to the device, obtain a certificate from the virtual wireless controller, and use it to join an attacker-controlled device to the controller.
Risk Assessment
An attacker could obtain a valid certificate and join their own device to the wireless controller, potentially leading to unauthorized network access and compromise. This poses a serious threat to the security of the wireless infrastructure.
Recommendation
Apply Cisco's fixes for CVE-2025-20293 and ensure the Day One setup process is properly completed and cleaned up. Restrict access to SCEP/PKI services on edge devices.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS XE Software
See all- CVE-2026-20104Medium
A vulnerability in the bootloader of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9200, ESS9300, IE9310, IE9320, IE3500, and IE3505 switches could allow an authenticated local attacker with level-15 privileges or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to execute arbitrary code at boot time and break the chain of trust. This is due to insufficient validation of software at boot time, enabling manipulation of loaded binaries to bypass integrity checks.
- CVE-2026-20272Critical
As part of an internal security review in Cisco IOS XE Software, multiple vulnerabilities related to improper neutralization of special elements (CWE-74) were discovered. Hardened software releases addressing these issues have been issued.
- CVE-2026-20267Critical
Vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software, discovered during an internal security review, involves improper access control issues classified under CWE-284. Hardened releases have been issued as a result.
- CVE-2023-20273HighActively exploited
A vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject commands with the privileges of root. This is due to insufficient input validation.
- CVE-2023-20198CriticalActively exploited
Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. The attacker exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user, then exploited another component (CVE-2023-20273) to elevate privilege to root and write an implant. CVE-2023-20198 has a CVSS score of 10.0, CVE-2023-20273 has a CVSS score of 7.2.
- CVE-2017-12319MediumActively exploited
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) over an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) for Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition, or potentially corrupt the BGP routing table, which could result in network instability. The vulnerability exists due to changes in the implementation of the BGP MPLS-Based Ethernet VPN RFC (RFC 7432) draft between IOS XE software releases. When the BGP Inclusive Multicast Ethernet Tag Route or BGP EVPN MAC/IP Advertisement Route update packet is received, it could be possible that the IP address length field is miscalculated. This vulnerability affects all releases of Cisco IOS XE Software prior to software release 16.3 that support BGP EVPN configurations.
- CVE-2017-12229Critical
A vulnerability in the web-based user interface (web UI) of Cisco IOS XE 3.1 through 16.5 allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass authentication to the REST API. The issue is due to insufficient input validation for the REST API.
- CVE-2026-20311Medium
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with low privileges to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This is due to insufficient error handling in the web-based management interface. An attacker could exploit this by authenticating with a malformed certificate, potentially causing the device to reload.
- CVE-2026-20308Medium
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco IOS XE Software allows an authenticated remote attacker with low privileges to perform a DoS attack. The issue is due to insufficient input validation, and exploitation can make the interface unresponsive.
- CVE-2026-20273High
A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software related to improper input validation (CWE-20), discovered during an internal security review. It is addressed in a software hardening release.
Original NVD description (English source)
A vulnerability in the Day One setup process of Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers for Cloud (9800-CL) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access the public-key infrastructure (PKI) server that is running on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to incomplete cleanup upon completion of the Day One setup process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to request a certificate from the virtual wireless controller and then use the acquired certificate to join an attacker-controlled device to the virtual wireless controller.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS