CVE-2020-3398
Cisco NX-OS Software Border Gateway Protocol Multicast VPN Session 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 a BGP session to repeatedly reset, causing a partial denial of service (DoS) condition due to the BGP session being down. The vulnerability is due to incorrect parsing of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP peer connections to reset, which could lead to BGP route instability and impact traffic. The incoming BGP MVPN update message is valid but is parsed incorrectly by the NX-OS device, which could send a corrupted BGP update to the configured BGP peer. 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 Session 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 a BGP session to repeatedly reset, causing a partial denial of service (DoS) condition due to the BGP session being down. The vulnerability is due to incorrect parsing of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP peer connections to reset, which could lead to BGP route instability and impact traffic. The incoming BGP MVPN update message is valid but is parsed incorrectly by the NX-OS device, which could send a corrupted BGP update to the configured BGP peer. 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-2020-3398- 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-2020-24669
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 a BGP session to repeatedly reset, causing a partial denial of service (DoS) condition due to the BGP session being down. The vulnerability is due to incorrect parsing of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP peer connections to reset, which could lead to BGP route instability and impact traffic. The incoming BGP MVPN update message is valid but is parsed incorrectly by the NX-OS device, which could send a corrupted BGP update to the configured BGP peer. 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-2020-24669- 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-4jqq-x95h-w7jm 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 a BGP session to repeatedly reset, causing a partial denial of service (DoS) condition due to the BGP session being down. The vulnerability is due to incorrect parsing of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP peer connections to reset, which could lead to BGP route instability and impact traffic. The incoming BGP MVPN update message is valid but is parsed incorrectly by the NX-OS device, which could send a corrupted BGP update to the configured BGP peer. 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-4jqq-x95h-w7jm- 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 a BGP session to repeatedly reset, causing a partial denial of service (DoS) condition due to the BGP session being down. The vulnerability is due to incorrect parsing of a specific type of BGP MVPN update message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending this BGP MVPN update message to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP peer connections to reset, which could lead to BGP route instability and impact traffic. The incoming BGP MVPN update message is valid but is parsed incorrectly by the NX-OS device, which could send a corrupted BGP update to the configured BGP peer. 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-2020-3398- 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
- 4.3 Medium
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - 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-2020-3398 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 1.82%, the 78th percentile. No source names a fixed version.