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CVE-2019-15989

Cisco IOS XR Software Border Gateway Protocol Attribute Denial of Service Vulnerability

8.6 High

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

1.31%Up 0.7 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 8.6

Cisco IOS XR Software Border Gateway Protocol Attribute Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.

Record
CVE-2019-15989
CVSS 3.0
8.6 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-754
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2019-6883 8.6

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.

Record
EUVD-2019-6883
CVSS 3.0
8.6 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-gmrf-44g4-wc8m No score

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco...

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.

Record
GHSA-gmrf-44g4-wc8m
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 8.6

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.

Record
CVE-2019-15989
CVSS 3.1
8.6 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 3.0
8.6 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.0
5.0 MediumAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Weakness
CWE-754
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliases, publishedEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2019-15989 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.6) in Cisco Ios Xr Software, published January 26, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.31%, the 70th percentile. No source names a fixed version.

References

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