Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Session Management Edition Engineering Special builds contain hardcoded credentials that cannot be modified, exposing systems to remote attackers. The identified flaw, CVE-2025-20309, has a critical rating of 10.0. The hardcoded accounts were implemented for development ease but create a severe security risk. To resolve this vulnerability, administrators must upgrade to the latest Unified CM code. The affected versions include specific Engineering Special releases, and security checks can be performed by investigating log entries for unauthorized access attempts.
The ES builds of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and its Session Management Edition have hardcoded credentials that an unauthenticated attacker can exploit to gain root control.
The mistake, known as CVE-2025-20309, was designed to facilitate development, but it has left systems vulnerable to potential exploitation.
Admins must upgrade to the latest code, as there is no workaround for the issue created by hardcoded credentials in specific CISCO Unified platforms.
Administrators can check for exploitation attempts by examining the log at /var/log/active/syslog/secure and monitoring for successful SSH logins as root.
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