CVE-2024-20265

A vulnerability in the boot process of Cisco Access Point (AP) Software could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to bypass the Cisco Secure Boot functionality and load a software image that has been tampered with on an affected device. This vulnerability exists because unnecessary commands are available during boot time at the physical console. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by interrupting the boot process and executing specific commands to bypass the Cisco Secure Boot validation checks and load an image that has been tampered with. This image would have been previously downloaded onto the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to load the image once. The Cisco Secure Boot functionality is not permanently compromised.

Published: 2024-03-27 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2024-20265 is rated Low Risk (24.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2024-20265

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.09% 0.02% -0.07%
2 2025-11-18 0.02% 0.09% +0.07%
3 2025-05-05 0.02%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-20265

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.7 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-20265

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-20265

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2024-20265

cvelogic Threat Intelligence