CVE-2025-20160
A vulnerability in the implementation of the TACACS+ protocol in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an…
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- cisco
Description
A vulnerability in the implementation of the TACACS+ protocol in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to view sensitive data or bypass authentication. This vulnerability exists because the system does not properly check whether the required TACACS+ shared secret is configured. A machine-in-the-middle attacker could exploit this vulnerability by intercepting and reading unencrypted TACACS+ messages or impersonating the TACACS+ server and falsely accepting arbitrary authentication requests. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view sensitive information in a TACACS+ message or bypass authentication and gain access to the affected device.
Timeline
ID reserved
By cisco
- 12 months later
· 12 months later
Published
- 5 months later
· 5 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| ciscoCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High8.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.45% · top 61% of all CVEs (7 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 8.1.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected 15.2(6)E1
- affected 15.2(4)E6
- affected 15.2(6)E2
- affected 15.2(4)E7
- affected 15.2(7)E
- affected 15.2(4)E8
- affected 15.2(6)E2a
- affected 15.2(6)E2b
- affected 15.2(7)E1
- affected 15.2(7)E0a
- affected 15.2(7)E0b
- affected 15.2(7)E0s
- affected 15.2(6)E3
- affected 15.2(4)E9
- affected 15.2(7)E2
- affected 15.2(7a)E0b
- affected 15.2(4)E10
- affected 15.2(7)E3
- affected 15.2(7)E1a
- affected 15.2(7b)E0b
- affected 15.2(7)E2a
- affected 15.2(4)E10a
- affected 15.2(7)E4
- affected 15.2(7)E3k
- affected 15.2(8)E
- affected 15.2(8)E1
- affected 15.2(7)E5
- affected 15.2(7)E6
- affected 15.2(8)E2
- affected 15.2(4)E10d
- affected 15.2(7)E7
- affected 15.2(8)E3
- affected 15.2(7)E8
- affected 15.2(8)E4
- affected 15.2(7)E9
- affected 15.2(8)E5
- affected 15.2(8)E6
- affected 15.2(7)E10
- affected 15.2(7)E11
- affected 15.2(8)E7
- and 84 more
- affected 3.16.8S
- affected 3.16.9S
- affected 3.16.10S
- affected 3.8.6E
- affected 3.8.7E
- affected 3.8.8E
- affected 3.8.9E
- affected 3.8.10E
- affected 3.18.5SP
- affected 3.18.6SP
- affected 3.18.7SP
- affected 3.18.8aSP
- affected 3.18.9SP
- affected 16.6.5
- affected 16.6.5a
- affected 16.6.6
- affected 16.6.7
- affected 16.6.8
- affected 16.6.9
- affected 16.6.10
- affected 16.8.1
- affected 16.8.1a
- affected 16.8.1b
- affected 16.8.1s
- affected 16.8.1c
- affected 16.8.1d
- affected 16.8.2
- affected 16.8.1e
- affected 16.8.3
- affected 16.9.1
- affected 16.9.2
- affected 16.9.1a
- affected 16.9.1b
- affected 16.9.1s
- affected 16.9.3
- affected 16.9.4
- affected 16.9.3a
- affected 16.9.5
- affected 16.9.5f
- affected 16.9.6
- and 195 more
What to do
Exploitation: The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.
References (1)
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)
- 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
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2025-20160)Record last updated .