Root command execution via insufficient command validation
Published Aug 14, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Command injection in Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and FTD Software allows local users to execute operating-system commands as root. The command-processing path fails to validate crafted input supplied to specific commands before passing it to the underlying operating system. Valid administrative credentials and local access are required, and successful exploitation grants root-level command execution without reported availability impact.
Summary
What happened
Command injection in Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and FTD Software allows local users to execute operating-system commands as root. The command-processing path fails to validate crafted input supplied to specific commands before passing it to the underlying operating system. Valid administrative credentials and local access are required, and successful exploitation grants root-level command execution without reported availability impact.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-20238
- Published
- Aug 14, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- ClamAV
- Product
- Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
- Classifications
- CWE-1244, T1059
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 14, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=9.12.1
- Affected versionversion=9.12.1.2
- Affected versionversion=9.12.1.3
- Affected versionversion=9.12.2
- Affected versionversion=9.12.2.1
- Affected versionversion=9.12.2.4
- Affected versionversion=9.12.2.5
- Affected versionversion=9.12.2.9
- Affected versionversion=9.12.3
- Affected versionversion=9.12.3.12
- Affected versionversion=9.12.3.2
- Affected versionversion=9.12.3.7
- Affected versionversion=9.12.3.9
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.10
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.13
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.18
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.2
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.24
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.26
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.29
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.30
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.35
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.37
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.38
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.39
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.4
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.40
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.41
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.47
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.48
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.50
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.52
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.54
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.55
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.56
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.58
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.62
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.65
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.67
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.7
- Affected versionversion=9.12.4.8
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1.10
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1.15
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1.19
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1.30
- Affected versionversion=9.14.1.6
- Affected versionversion=9.14.2
- Affected versionversion=9.14.2.13
- Affected versionversion=9.14.2.15
- Affected versionversion=9.14.2.4
- Affected versionversion=9.14.2.8
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.1
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.11
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.13
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.15
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.18
- Affected versionversion=9.14.3.9
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.12
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.13
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.14
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.15
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.17
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.22
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.23
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.24
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.6
- Affected versionversion=9.14.4.7
- Affected versionversion=9.16.1
- Affected versionversion=9.16.1.28
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2.11
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2.13
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2.14
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2.3
- Affected versionversion=9.16.2.7
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3.14
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3.15
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3.19
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3.23
- Affected versionversion=9.16.3.3
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.14
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.18
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.19
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.27
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.38
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.39
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.42
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.48
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.55
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.57
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.61
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.62
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.67
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.70
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.71
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.76
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.82
- Affected versionversion=9.16.4.9
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.10
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.11
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.13
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.15
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.20
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.30
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.33
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.39
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.45
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.46
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.7
- Affected versionversion=9.17.1.9
- Affected versionversion=9.18.1
- Affected versionversion=9.18.1.3
- Affected versionversion=9.18.2
- Affected versionversion=9.18.2.5
- Affected versionversion=9.18.2.7
- Affected versionversion=9.18.2.8
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3.39
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3.46
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3.53
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3.55
- Affected versionversion=9.18.3.56
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.22
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.24
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.29
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.34
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.40
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.47
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.5
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.50
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.52
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.53
- Affected versionversion=9.18.4.8
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.12
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.18
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.22
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.24
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.27
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.28
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.31
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.37
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.38
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.5
- Affected versionversion=9.19.1.9
- Affected versionversion=9.20.1
- Affected versionversion=9.20.1.5
- Affected versionversion=9.20.2
- Affected versionversion=9.20.2.10
- Affected versionversion=9.20.2.21
- Affected versionversion=9.20.2.22
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3.10
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3.13
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3.4
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3.7
- Affected versionversion=9.20.3.9
- Affected versionversion=9.22.1.1
- Affected versionversion=9.22.1.2
- Affected versionversion=9.22.1.3
- Affected versionversion=9.22.1.6
- Affected versionversion=9.23.1
- Affected versionversion=9.8.1
- Affected versionversion=9.8.1.5
- Affected versionversion=9.8.1.7
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.14
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.15
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.17
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.20
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.24
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.26
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.28
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.33
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.35
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.38
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.45
- Affected versionversion=9.8.2.8
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.11
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.14
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.16
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.18
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.21
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.26
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.29
- Affected versionversion=9.8.3.8
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.10
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.12
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.15
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.17
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.20
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.22
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.25
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.26
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.29
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.3
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.32
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.33
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.34
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.35
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.39
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.40
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.41
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.43
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.44
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.45
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.46
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.48
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.7
- Affected versionversion=9.8.4.8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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