The firmware update should be signed by Cisco and verified before being applied, whether the person signed in is an admin or not. I believe newer Ciscos do tha

The firmware update should be signed by Cisco and verified before being applied, whether the person signed in is an admin or not. I believe newer Ciscos do that, I know newer versions of Windows do that for sure... admin or not, you are not overwriting certain critical components with unsigned/unverified stuff. Chromebooks work like that, too. Like, if you want to change shit on it without verification (say, to install Linux), you need to switch to "Developer mode" which cannot be done remotely, you need to push a pencil into a hole on the Chromebook or something like that.