Cisco Secure Email/Secure Web Appliance Web-based Management Interface command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cisco Secure Email and Secure Web Appliance. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Web-based Management Interface. Performing a manipulation results in command injection. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-20184. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Cisco Secure Email and Secure Web Appliance (version unknown). This affects an unknown function of the component Web-based Management Interface. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a command injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-77. The product constructs all or part of a command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended command when it is sent to a downstream component. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform command injection attacks against an affected device. The attacker must authenticate with valid administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of XML configuration files by an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a crafted XML configuration file. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to inject commands to the underlying operating system with root privileges.

It is possible to read the advisory at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-20184 since 10/10/2024. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/08/2025). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1202 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 215116 (Cisco Secure Web Appliance Multiple Vulnerabilities (cisco-sa-esa-sma-wsa-multi-yKUJhS34)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (215116). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• Secure Email
• Secure Web Appliance

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.cisco.com/

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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