Overview
CVE-2025-20346 describes a medium-severity vulnerability affecting Cisco Catalyst Center. This flaw allows a remote, authenticated attacker with read-only (Observer) privileges to perform actions that are intended only for Administrator-level accounts. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized modification of critical system policies.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from improper role-based access control (RBAC) implementation within Cisco Catalyst Center. An attacker possessing valid credentials for a user with at least the “Observer” role can exploit this flaw by logging into the affected system and manipulating specific policy configurations. Due to the inadequate RBAC, the system incorrectly grants these users permissions to modify policies that should be exclusively managed by users with the Administrator role.
CVSS Analysis
The vulnerability has a CVSS v3 score of 4.3, indicating a MEDIUM severity.
- CVSS Vector: (Details of the CVSS vector string would be available on the Cisco advisory and should be included here for a full understanding.)
- Attack Vector: Network
- Attack Complexity: Low
- Privileges Required: Low (Requires valid Observer credentials)
- User Interaction: None
- Scope: Unchanged
- Confidentiality Impact: None
- Integrity Impact: Low
- Availability Impact: None
Possible Impact
A successful exploit of CVE-2025-20346 could allow an attacker with Observer privileges to:
- Modify critical policy configurations within Cisco Catalyst Center.
- Potentially disrupt network operations by altering device configurations.
- Gain unauthorized control over network resources by manipulating access policies.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
Cisco has released a security advisory and likely a software update to address this vulnerability. Affected users are strongly advised to:
- Immediately apply the recommended patch or upgrade to the latest version of Cisco Catalyst Center as instructed in the official Cisco Security Advisory.
- Review user roles and permissions within Cisco Catalyst Center to ensure proper RBAC is enforced after the update.
- Monitor system logs for any suspicious activity that may indicate exploitation attempts.
References
Cisco Security Advisory – cisco-sa-privesc-catc-rYjReeLU
NIST NVD – CVE-2025-20346
