CVE-2025-20261Cisco Integrated Management Controller Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Description

A vulnerability in the SSH connection handling of Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) for Cisco UCS B-Series, UCS C-Series, UCS S-Series, and UCS X-Series Servers could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to access internal services with elevated privileges. This vulnerability is due to insufficient restrictions on access to internal services. An attacker with a valid user account could exploit this vulnerability by using crafted syntax when connecting to the Cisco IMC of an affected device through SSH. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access internal services with elevated privileges, which may allow unauthorized modifications to the system, including the possibility of creating new administrator accounts on the affected device.

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.46% · top 60% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.

Affected products

• Cisco · Cisco Unified Computing System (Managed)

  • affected 4.0(1a)
  • affected 3.2(3n)
  • affected 4.1(1a)
  • affected 4.1(1b)
  • affected 4.0(4h)
  • affected 4.1(1c)
  • affected 3.2(3k)
  • affected 3.2(2c)
  • affected 4.0(4e)
  • affected 4.0(4g)
  • affected 3.2(3i)
  • affected 4.0(2e)
  • affected 3.2(3g)
  • affected 4.0(4a)
  • affected 4.0(2d)
  • affected 3.2(2d)
  • affected 4.0(1b)
  • affected 4.0(4f)
  • affected 3.2(3h)
  • affected 3.2(2f)
  • affected 4.0(4c)
  • affected 3.2(3a)
  • affected 4.0(1c)
  • affected 3.2(3d)
  • affected 3.2(2b)
  • affected 4.0(4b)
  • affected 3.2(2e)
  • affected 4.0(2b)
  • affected 4.0(4d)
  • affected 3.2(1d)
  • affected 3.2(3e)
  • affected 3.2(3l)
  • affected 3.2(3b)
  • affected 4.0(2a)
  • affected 3.2(3j)
  • affected 4.0(1d)
  • affected 3.2(3o)
  • affected 4.0(4i)
  • affected 4.1(1d)
  • affected 4.1(2a)
  • and 50 more

• Cisco · Cisco Unified Computing System (Standalone)

  • affected 4.0(2g)
  • affected 3.1(2i)
  • affected 3.1(1d)
  • affected 4.0(4i)
  • affected 4.1(1c)
  • affected 4.0(2c)
  • affected 4.0(1e)
  • affected 4.0(2h)
  • affected 4.0(4h)
  • affected 4.0(1h)
  • affected 4.0(2l)
  • affected 3.1(3g)
  • affected 4.0(1.240)
  • affected 4.0(2f)
  • affected 4.0(1g)
  • affected 4.0(2i)
  • affected 3.1(3i)
  • affected 4.0(4d)
  • affected 4.1(1d)
  • affected 3.1(3c)
  • affected 4.0(4k)
  • affected 3.1(2d)
  • affected 3.1(3a)
  • affected 3.1(3j)
  • affected 4.0(2d)
  • affected 4.1(1f)
  • affected 4.0(4j)
  • affected 4.0(2m)
  • affected 4.0(2k)
  • affected 4.0(1c)
  • affected 4.0(4f)
  • affected 4.0(4c)
  • affected 3.1(3d)
  • affected 3.1(2g)
  • affected 3.1(2c)
  • affected 4.0(1d)
  • affected 3.1(2e)
  • affected 4.0(1a)
  • affected 4.0(1b)
  • affected 3.1(3b)
  • and 45 more

What to do

Exploitation: The Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2025-16890 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2025-20261](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2025-20261.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-20261)

Record last updated 26 Feb 2026, 18:27 UTC.