A vulnerability in the Out-of-Band Access Point (AP) Image Download, the Clean Air Spectral Recording, and the client debug bundles features of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to upload arbitrary files to an affected system. This vulnerability is due to the presence of a hard-coded JSON Web Token (JWT) on an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTPS requests to the AP file upload interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to upload files, perform path traversal, and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges.

Cisco has scored this with a maximum severity CVSS score of 10. Immediate patching is recommended.

According to its self-reported version, Cisco IOS-XE Software is affected by a vulnerability.

  - A vulnerability in the Out-of-Band Access Point (AP) Image Download feature of Cisco IOS XE Software for     Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to upload arbitrary files     to an affected system. This vulnerability is due to the presence of a hard-coded JSON Web Token (JWT) on     an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTPS requests to the     AP image download interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to upload files, perform path     traversal, and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges. Note: For exploitation to be successful,     the Out-of-Band AP Image Download feature must be enabled on the device. It is not enabled by default.
    (CVE-2025-20188)

Please see the included Cisco BIDs and Cisco Security Advisory for more information.

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2025-20188

critical

Tenable Plugins

critical