Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities Expose Cisco Meraki and ECE Products to DoS Attacks

Cisco fixes two high-severity denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Meraki devices and Enterprise Chat and Email.

Cisco hacked

Cisco on Wednesday announced fixes for two high-severity denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerabilities impacting its Meraki MX and Meraki Z series devices and Enterprise Chat and Email (ECE) appliances.

The Meraki bug, tracked as CVE-2025-20212, was discovered in the AnyConnect VPN server, and was the result of a variable not being initialized when establishing an SSL VPN session.

An attacker with valid VPN user credentials could supply crafted attributes when the SSL VPN session was established, to cause the AnyConnect VPN server to restart, forcing remote users to initiate new VPN connections.

“A sustained attack could prevent new SSL VPN connections from being established,” Cisco explains, adding that the server would automatically recover when the attack stops.

Meraki MX firmware releases 18.107.12, 18.211.4, and 19.1.4 address the security defect. Devices running firmware versions 16.2 and 17 should be upgraded to a patched release, but earlier firmware releases are not affected.

The second DoS flaw resolved on Wednesday, tracked as CVE-2025-20139, affects the chat messaging features of ECE and could be exploited remotely, without authentication.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Improper validation of user-supplied input, the tech giant explains, could allow an attacker to send malicious requests to a chat entry point and cause the application to stop responding.

“The application may not recover on its own and may need an administrator to manually restart services to recover,” the company notes.

While default ECE configurations are not affected by this flaw, instances that have the chat feature enabled and an entry point configured are vulnerable, Cisco says.

Fixes for the bug were included in Cisco ECE version 12.6 ES 10. Users of earlier releases are advised to migrate to a patched version.

Cisco also released patches for two medium-severity vulnerabilities in the web-based management interface of Evolved Programmable Network Manager (EPNM) and Prime Infrastructure that could lead to remote, unauthenticated cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Both issues are the result of improperly validated user-supplied input.

The tech giant says it is not aware of any of these vulnerabilities being exploited in attacks, but users are advised to apply the available patches as soon as possible. Additional information can be found on Cisco’s security advisories page.

On Wednesday, the company updated its advisory for two critical security defects in Smart Licensing Utility that could allow attackers to log in with administrative privileges and obtain log files, respectively, to warn of their in-the-wild exploitation.

Tracked as CVE-2024-20439 and CVE-2024-20440, the flaws were patched in September 2024, and threat actors started exploiting them in attacks in March 2025.

Related: Cisco Patches 10 Vulnerabilities in IOS XR

Related: Cisco Patches Vulnerabilities in Nexus Switches

Related: Salt Typhoon Targeting Old Cisco Vulnerabilities in Fresh Telecom Hacks

Related: Cisco Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Enterprise Security Product

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

With "Shadow AI" usage becoming prevalent in organizations, learn how to balance the need for rapid experimentation with the rigorous controls required for enterprise-grade deployment.

Register

Delve into big-picture strategies to reduce attack surfaces, improve patch management, conduct post-incident forensics, and tools and tricks needed in a modern organization.

Register

People on the Move

MongoDB has appointed Doug Bowers as Chief Information Security Officer.

Ben Wilkens has been promoted to Director of Cybersecurity at NMFTA.

Cato Networks has appointed Meital Koren as Chief Legal Officer.

More People On The Move

Expert Insights

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest cybersecurity news, threats, and expert insights. Unsubscribe at any time.