Introduction
A single crafted link can turn a trusted Cisco management portal into a phishing launchpad and put infrastructure credentials at risk. CVE-2025-20317 is a subtle web application flaw in Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) and Cisco UCS Manager that attackers can use for credential theft and redirection attacks against administrators and operators.
About Cisco IMC and UCS Manager: Cisco is a dominant vendor in enterprise networking and infrastructure management, and its IMC platform is deployed globally for out-of-band management of servers and appliances. The Virtual Keyboard Video Monitor (vKVM) is the core remote console feature in both IMC and UCS Manager, so this vulnerability is relevant to a wide range of enterprise and service provider environments.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-20317 is a classic open redirect vulnerability (CWE-601) in the vKVM connection handling of Cisco IMC and Cisco UCS Manager. The flaw comes from insufficient verification of user-supplied endpoint URLs. When a user interacts with the vKVM web interface, certain parameters control where the user is redirected after authentication or session events. The application does not check that these destinations are legitimate, so an attacker can craft a URL that makes IMC or UCS Manager redirect the user to an arbitrary external site.
Exploitation details:
- The attacker does not need to authenticate.
- The attacker crafts a URL that points to the IMC or UCS Manager vKVM endpoint and carries a malicious redirect parameter.
- The attacker convinces a user, typically through phishing, to click the crafted link.
- When the user clicks, they are redirected to an attacker-controlled site, which may be built to mimic a legitimate login page or to harvest credentials.
No public code snippets or endpoint parameter names have been disclosed. The root cause is improper input validation in the vKVM web interface, which is consistent with earlier open redirect issues in Cisco products.
Affected Systems and Versions
- Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) with vKVM functionality
- Cisco UCS Manager (vKVM client is included)
The advisory does not publish specific version numbers or ranges.
Vendor Security History
Cisco IMC and related management products have had similar web interface vulnerabilities before, including open redirect and input validation issues (2021 open redirect). In 2025, Cisco has reported several high- and critical-severity vulnerabilities across its management product lines, including privilege escalation and authentication bypasses. The pattern suggests recurring problems with secure development and input validation in management interfaces.
