What is CVE-2025-20159?

CVE-2025-20159 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xr Software, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2025-09-10.

How severe is CVE-2025-20159?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2025-20159 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xr Software

CVE-2025-20159

A 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 vulnerability exists because management interface ACLs have not been supported on Cisco IOS XR Software Packet I/O infrastructure platforms for Linux-handled features such as SSH, NetConf, or gRPC. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by attempting to send traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass an ingress ACL that is applied on the management interface of the affected device.

EPSS: 0.003 (21.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

Affected products

Cisco Ios Xr Software — versions 6.6.1, 6.5.3, 7.0.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-284 — Improper Access Control

Public proof-of-concept exploits

ARPSyndicate/cve-scores

References

psirt@cisco.com

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-20159?: CVE-2025-20159 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xr Software, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2025-09-10.
How severe is CVE-2025-20159?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-20159 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.