A newly disclosed vulnerability, CVE-2025-20118, impacts the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) and puts sensitive information at risk. While this flaw requires valid administrative credentials, a malicious actor with access can collect confidential data via the command line interface (CLI) due to insufficient masking in some system process outputs.

This post explains how the vulnerability works, provides a demonstration, and covers everything you need to know to protect your system.

What is Cisco APIC?

Cisco APIC is the unified point of automation and management for Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). It's a key part of modern data centers, controlling network policies and fabric configuration. Given its role, APIC holds lots of sensitive information and demands robust security.

Core Issue

The problem lies in some CLI commands in APIC not properly masking or hiding sensitive internal information. For instance, commands that are supposed to show logs, configurations, or user details might accidentally display passwords or secret tokens in plain text.

Attack Scenario

If an attacker gains admin access (through phishing, insider threat, or lateral movement), they can use standard CLI reconnaissance techniques to view or dump confidential data. The exposed data may include:

Network configuration secrets

A threat actor could then use this information to further compromise your network or escalate their privileges.

Proof-of-Concept: How The Exploit Works

Let’s look at a simulated example to understand how a local attacker might identify and exploit CVE-2025-20118.

Step 1: Gain Admin CLI Access

The attacker first logs into the APIC device via SSH with a legitimate administrator account.

ssh admin@apic-device.example.com

Step 2: Run a Vulnerable Command

They might know (through documentation or experimentation) that a certain debug or system inventory command is vulnerable. For example:

apic# show logging | include password

Possible Output

2025-01-02 12:34:56 SYSTEM: Added user admin; password is MySecretPassword123!
2025-01-02 12:35:10 SYSTEM: ServiceAccount token: supersecrettoken=YzM5ZmEyQ==

Notice that password and token are printed in clear text, instead of being masked (e.g., <b></b>*).

Real-World Risks

- Data Center Breach: Exposure can cascade beyond the APIC, allowing control over the whole enterprise network.
- Persistent Backdoor: Credentials or tokens could be harvested and used for ongoing unauthorized access.

Long Term

- Upgrade to the latest patched version of APIC as soon as Cisco releases an update for CVE-2025-20118.

Official References

- Cisco Security Advisory for CVE-2025-20118
- National Vulnerability Database (NVD) Entry

Be sure to sign up for Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) notifications for real-time alerts:
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/psirtNotifications.x

Conclusion

CVE-2025-20118 highlights the danger of not properly hiding sensitive data within administrator tooling—even on “trusted” internal systems. If you manage Cisco APIC, act now: limit administrative access, update as soon as possible, and monitor for possible exploitation.

Stay proactive and keep your infrastructure safe!

Note: This article is for educational purposes only. Do not attempt to exploit vulnerabilities on systems you do not own or operate. Always follow your organization’s security and disclosure policies.

Timeline

Published on: 02/26/2025 17:15:22 UTC
Last modified on: 02/26/2025 18:15:14 UTC