Critical Cisco Vulnerability in Unified CM Grants Root Access via Static Credentials
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2025-20281 +1 in the same advisory: …20282 | Unauthenticated Root RCE via API Injection in Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC CVE-2025-20281 is an injection flaw (CWE-74) in a specific API of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC), caused by insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can trigger it by sending a crafted request to that API; no valid credentials or user interaction are required. A successful exploit yields arbitrary code execution on the underlying operating system with root privileges, giving the attacker full control of the affected device (scope-changing per the CVSS 10.0 score). Any organization running affected ISE or ISE-PIC releases is exposed, particularly where the vulnerable API is reachable from untrusted networks. The flaw is confirmed under active exploitation: CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-07-28, EPSS assigns a 97.1% probability of exploitation within 30 days, and ZDI has published a writeup of the unauthenticated root RCE. Do: Upgrade Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC to the patched releases specified in Cisco's PSIRT advisory, and check whether the vulnerable API/admin interface is reachable from untrusted networks, restricting access until patching is complete. As a KEV entry added 2025-07-28, U.S. federal agencies must apply vendor mitigations per BOD 22-01 guidance or discontinue use of the product; given EPSS of 97.1% and confirmed active exploitation, prioritize internet-facing ISE instances and review API/web-server logs for signs of exploitation. | 10.0 | 97% | KEV PoC |
| largeroughly tens of thousands of enterprise/government deployments worldwide (estimate), with an unknown subset exposing the vulnerable API to untrusted networks | |
| CVE-2025-20309 | A vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME) could A vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to an affected device using the root account, which has default, static credentials that cannot be changed or deleted. This vulnerability is due to the presence of static user credentials for the root account that are reserved for use during development. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the account to log in to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected system and execute arbitrary commands as the root user. NVD description · AI analysis pending | 10.0 | 1% |
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Full article344 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse
Ravie LakshmananJul 03, 2025Vulnerability / Network Security
Cisco has released security updates to address a maximum-severity security flaw in Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME) that could permit an attacker to login to a susceptible device as the root user, allowing them to gain elevated privileges.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-20309, carries a CVSS score of 10.0.
"This vulnerability is due to the presence of static user credentials for the root account that are reserved for use during development," Cisco said in an advisory released Wednesday.
"An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the account to log in to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected system and execute arbitrary commands as the root user."
Hard-coded credentials like this usually come from testing or quick fixes during development, but they should never make it into live systems. In tools like Unified CM that handle voice calls and communication across a company, root access can let attackers move deeper into the network, listen in on calls, or change how users log in.
The networking equipment major said it found no evidence of the flaw being exploited in the wild, and that it was discovered during internal security testing.
CVE-2025-20309 affects Unified CM and Unified CM SME versions 15.0.1.13010-1 through 15.0.1.13017-1, irrespective of device configuration.
Cisco has also released indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with the flaw, stating successful exploitation would result in a log entry to "/var/log/active/syslog/secure" for the root user with root permissions. The log can retrieved by running the below command from the command-line interface -
cucm1# file get activelog syslog/secure
The development comes merely days after the company fixed two security flaws in Identity Services Engine and ISE Passive Identity Connector (CVE-2025-20281 and CVE-2025-20282) that could permit an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands as the root user.
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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/critical-cisco-vulnerability-in-unified.html