CVE-2025-20143Medium· 6.7▾ SunlitA vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with high privileges to bypass the Secure Boot functionality and load unverified software on an affected device. To exploit this vuln…
▾ Sunlit zone — Low / medium · no exploitation signal
impact 36.9 · likelihood 0 · exploitation 0
Need a working PoC? Pro members can cast a request and our team develops one — it lands right here.
Disclosure to exploitation, from the record and what we observed since indexing it.
Disclosed via CSAF
0.1%
A vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with high privileges to bypass the Secure Boot functionality and load unverified software on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have root-system privileges on the affected device.
This vulnerability is due to insufficient verification of modules in the software load process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the loaded binaries to bypass some of the integrity checks that are performed during the booting process. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to control the boot configuration, which could enable them to bypass the requirement to run Cisco-signed images or alter the security properties of the running system.
Note: This vulnerability affects Cisco IOS XR Software, not the Secure Boot feature.
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.
This advisory is part of the March 2025 release of the Cisco IOS XR Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: March 2025 Semiannual Cisco IOS XR Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication ["https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-75548"].
Cisco IOS XR Software Secure Boot Bypass Vulnerability. Released 2025-03-12.
Affected:
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. https://software.cisco.com
Connected by shared product, vendor, weakness, or advisory.
CVE-2025-20142High· 8.6Cisco IOS XR Software for ASR 9000 Series Routers L2VPN Denial of Service Vulnerability
CVE-2025-20146High· 8.6Cisco IOS XR Software for ASR 9000 Series Routers Layer 3 Multicast Routing Denial of Service Vulnerability
CVE-2024-20304High· 8.6Cisco IOS XR Software Packet Memory Exhaustion Vulnerability
CVE-2024-20398High· 8.8Cisco IOS XR Software Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
CVE-2024-20390Medium· 5.3Cisco IOS XR Software Dedicated XML Agent TCP Denial of Service Vulnerability (CVE-2024-20390)
CVE-2025-20159Medium· 5.3A vulnerability in the management interface access control list (ACL) processing feature in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass configured ACLs for the SSH, NetConf, and gRPC features. This …