Cisco Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (CIS4992749111425)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Cisco breach identified under incident ID CIS4992749111425.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Cisco's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cisco, the number of followers: 6981104, the industry type: Software Development and the number of employees: 94948 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 681 and after the incident was 664 with a difference of -17 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Cisco and their customers.

Cisco Systems recently reported "Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (CVE-2025-20341)", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

A critical security vulnerability (CVE-2025-20341) in the Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance could enable authenticated, remote attackers with at least Observer-level privileges to escalate their access to Administrator via crafted HTTP requests due to insufficient input...

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliances on VMware ESXi (versions 2.3.7.3-VA and later, excluding 3.1+).

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Immediate software upgrade to patched versions (e.g., 2.3.7.10-VA), and began remediation that includes No workarounds; mandatory patching, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public security advisory and Direct customer notifications via TAC.

The case underscores how Internally discovered (via TAC support case); no evidence of exploitation in the wild, teams are taking away lessons such as Proactive internal vulnerability discovery (via TAC) highlights the importance of rigorous code review, Lack of workarounds underscores the need for timely patch management in critical infrastructure and Observer-level accounts can serve as attack vectors; least-privilege principles must be enforced, and recommending next steps like Upgrade affected Cisco Catalyst Center Virtual Appliances to version 2.3.7.10-VA or later immediately, Audit user roles to minimize Observer-level access where unnecessary and Monitor for unusual privilege escalation attempts or unauthorized account creation, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Cisco PSIRT advisory with fixed software details.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including authenticated attackers with Observer-level credentials to escalate privileges to Administrator via crafted HTTP requests, and cVE-2025-20341 (Insufficient Input Validation) and Account Manipulation: SSH Authorized Keys (T1098.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating enabling unauthorized system modifications such as creating new accounts or elevating privileges. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Default Accounts (T1078.001) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including authenticated attackers with at least Observer-level privileges, and observer-level accounts can serve as attack vectors. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Create Account: Local Account (T1136.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating creating new accounts or elevating privileges. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (75%), with evidence including authenticated, remote attackers with at least Observer-level privileges, and no initial admin access is required. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.