A vulnerability in the implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to an attacker.

According to its self-reported version, Secure Email Gateway is affected by a vulnerability.

  - A vulnerability in the implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for     Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow     an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid     administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation     algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating     a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute     arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating     (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to     an attacker. (CVE-2025-20185)

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

According to its self-reported version, Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager is affected by a vulnerability.

  - A vulnerability in the implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for     Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow     an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid     administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation     algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating     a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute     arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating     (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to     an attacker. (CVE-2025-20185)

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

According to its self-reported version, Cisco Secure Web Appliance is affected by multiple vulnerabilities.

  - A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email     Gateway and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform command     injection attacks against an affected device. The attacker must authenticate with valid administrator     credentials. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of XML configuration files by an     affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a crafted XML configuration     file. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to inject commands to the underlying operating system     with root privileges. (CVE-2025-20184)

  - A vulnerability in the implementation of the remote access functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for     Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, Cisco Secure Email Gateway, and Cisco Secure Web Appliance could allow     an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root. The attacker must authenticate with valid     administrator credentials. This vulnerability is due to an architectural flaw in the password generation     algorithm for the remote access functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by generating     a temporary password for the service account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute     arbitrary commands as root and access the underlying operating system. Note: The Security Impact Rating     (SIR) for this vulnerability is Medium due to the unrestricted scope of information that is accessible to     an attacker. (CVE-2025-20185)

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

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
215118	Cisco Secure Email Gateway Privelege Escalation (cisco-sa-esa-sma-wsa-multi-yKUJhS34)	Nessus	CISCO	low
215117	Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Privelege Escalation (cisco-sa-esa-sma-wsa-multi-yKUJhS34)	Nessus	CISCO	low
215116	Cisco Secure Web Appliance Multiple Vulnerabilities (cisco-sa-esa-sma-wsa-multi-yKUJhS34)	Nessus	CISCO	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2025-20185

low

Tenable Plugins

low

low

medium