CVE-2025-20206: 
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Client vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A vulnerability in the interprocess communication (IPC) channel of Cisco Secure Client for Windows was discovered, identified as CVE-2025-20206. The vulnerability affects systems where the Secure Firewall Posture Engine (formerly HostScan) is installed on Cisco Secure Client. This security flaw was disclosed on March 5, 2025, and received a CVSS score of 7.1 (High) (NVD, SecurityOnline).

The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of resources that are loaded by the application at runtime. It specifically affects the IPC channel of the Cisco Secure Client when the Secure Firewall Posture Engine is installed. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (High) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N, indicating local access requirements but high impact on confidentiality and integrity (NVD).

A successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected machine with SYSTEM privileges, granting them the highest level of system access. This could potentially lead to complete system compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive information (SecurityOnline).

Cisco has released software updates to address this vulnerability. Users are advised to upgrade to version 5.1.8.105 or later. Currently, there are no workarounds available for this vulnerability, making the update the only effective mitigation strategy (SecurityOnline).