Operation Zero Disco: Attackers Exploit Cisco SNMP Vulnerability to Deploy Rootkits www.trendmicro.com/en_us/res…

Trend™ Research has detected an operation where attackers exploited a Cisco Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) vulnerability to install a rootkit on vulnerable network devices. The SNMP exploit referenced in Cisco’s latest advisory is CVE-2025-20352, which affects both 32-bit and 64-bit switch builds and can result in remote code execution (RCE).

The operation targeted victims running older Linux systems that do not have endpoint detection response solutions, where they deployed Linux rootkits to hide activity and evade blue-team investigation and detection. Trend Research investigation also found that attackers used spoofed IPs and Mac email addresses in their attacks.