CVE-2020-3397
Cisco NX-OS Software Border Gateway Protocol Multicast VPN Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this specific, valid BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause one of the BGP-related routing applications to restart multiple times, leading to a system-level restart. Note: The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic from only explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send a specific BGP MVPN update message over an established TCP connection that appears to come from a trusted BGP peer. To do so, the attacker must obtain information about the BGP peers in the trusted network of the affected system.
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
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
8.6
Cisco NX-OS Software Border Gateway Protocol Multicast VPN Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this specific, valid BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause one of the BGP-related routing applications to restart multiple times, leading to a system-level restart. Note: The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic from only explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send a specific BGP MVPN update message over an established TCP connection that appears to come from a trusted BGP peer. To do so, the attacker must obtain information about the BGP peers in the trusted network of the affected system.
- Record
CVE-2020-3397- CVSS 3.0
- 8.6 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-20
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-24668
8.6
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this specific, valid BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause one of the BGP-related routing applications to restart multiple times, leading to a system-level restart. Note: The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic from only explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send a specific BGP MVPN update message over an established TCP connection that appears to come from a trusted BGP peer. To do so, the attacker must obtain information about the BGP peers in the trusted network of the affected system.
- Record
EUVD-2020-24668- CVSS 3.0
- 8.6 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-5799-w2pr-v9hg No score
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco...
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this specific, valid BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause one of the BGP-related routing applications to restart multiple times, leading to a system-level restart. Note: The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic from only explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send a specific BGP MVPN update message over an established TCP connection that appears to come from a trusted BGP peer. To do so, the attacker must obtain information about the BGP peers in the trusted network of the affected system.
- Record
GHSA-5799-w2pr-v9hg- Weakness
- CWE-20
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
8.6
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Multicast VPN (MVPN) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this specific, valid BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause one of the BGP-related routing applications to restart multiple times, leading to a system-level restart. Note: The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic from only explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send a specific BGP MVPN update message over an established TCP connection that appears to come from a trusted BGP peer. To do so, the attacker must obtain information about the BGP peers in the trusted network of the affected system.
- Record
CVE-2020-3397- CVSS 3.1
- 8.6 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 3.0
- 8.6 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.1 High
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C - Weakness
- CWE-20
- 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-2020-3397 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.6) in Cisco Nx-os Software, published August 27, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.81%, the 78th percentile. No source names a fixed version.