CVE-2019-16018
Cisco IOS XR Software EVPN Operational Routes Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) 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 crafted EVPN attributes. An attacker could indirectly exploit the vulnerability by sending BGP EVPN update messages with a specific, malformed attribute to an affected system and waiting for a user on the device to display the EVPN operational routes’ status. If successful, the attacker could 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
- Required
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
7.4
Cisco IOS XR Software EVPN Operational Routes Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) 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 crafted EVPN attributes. An attacker could indirectly exploit the vulnerability by sending BGP EVPN update messages with a specific, malformed attribute to an affected system and waiting for a user on the device to display the EVPN operational routes’ status. If successful, the attacker could 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-2019-16018- CVSS 3.0
- 7.4 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-399
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2019-6907
7.4
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) 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 crafted EVPN attributes. An attacker could indirectly exploit the vulnerability by sending BGP EVPN update messages with a specific, malformed attribute to an affected system and waiting for a user on the device to display the EVPN operational routes’ status. If successful, the attacker could 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-2019-6907- CVSS 3.0
- 7.4 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-638h-mp9x-p4wm No score
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN)...
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) 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 crafted EVPN attributes. An attacker could indirectly exploit the vulnerability by sending BGP EVPN update messages with a specific, malformed attribute to an affected system and waiting for a user on the device to display the EVPN operational routes’ status. If successful, the attacker could 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-638h-mp9x-p4wm- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
6.5
A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) 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 crafted EVPN attributes. An attacker could indirectly exploit the vulnerability by sending BGP EVPN update messages with a specific, malformed attribute to an affected system and waiting for a user on the device to display the EVPN operational routes’ status. If successful, the attacker could 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-2019-16018- CVSS 3.1
- 6.5 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 3.0
- 7.4 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 4.3 Medium
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-399, CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases, published | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2019-16018 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.4) 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 1.07%, the 64th percentile. No source names a fixed version.