Critical Cisco Unified Communications Manager Static SSH Credentials Vulnerability (CVE-2025-20309)
CVE number = CVE-2025-20309
A vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to an affected device using the root account, which has default, static credentials that cannot be changed or deleted.
This vulnerability is due to the presence of static user credentials for the root account that are reserved for use during development. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the account to log in to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected system and execute arbitrary commands as the root user.
This vulnerability affects Cisco Unified CM and Unified CM SME Engineering Special (ES) releases 15.0.1.13010-1 through 15.0.1.13017-1, regardless of device configuration.
Note: ES releases are limited fix releases that are distributed only by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.
This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-cucm-ssh-m4UBdpE7

I am one of the editors here at www.systemtek.co.uk I am a UK based technology professional, with an interest in computer security and telecoms.