CVE-2020-3449
Cisco IOS XR Software Additional Paths Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to prevent authorized users from monitoring the BGP status and cause the BGP process to stop processing new updates, resulting in a denial of service (DOS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect calculation of lexicographical order when displaying additional path information within Cisco IOS XR Software, which causes an infinite loop. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific BGP update from a BGP neighbor peer session of an affected device; an authorized user must then issue a show bgp command for the vulnerability to be exploited. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to prevent authorized users from properly monitoring the BGP status and prevent BGP from processing new updates, resulting in outdated information in the routing and forwarding tables.
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
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
4.3
Cisco IOS XR Software Additional Paths Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to prevent authorized users from monitoring the BGP status and cause the BGP process to stop processing new updates, resulting in a denial of service (DOS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect calculation of lexicographical order when displaying additional path information within Cisco IOS XR Software, which causes an infinite loop. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific BGP update from a BGP neighbor peer session of an affected device; an authorized user must then issue a show bgp command for the vulnerability to be exploited. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to prevent authorized users from properly monitoring the BGP status and prevent BGP from processing new updates, resulting in outdated information in the routing and forwarding tables.
- Record
CVE-2020-3449- CVSS 3.1
- 4.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-754
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-24720
4.3
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to prevent authorized users from monitoring the BGP status and cause the BGP process to stop processing new updates, resulting in a denial of service (DOS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect calculation of lexicographical order when displaying additional path information within Cisco IOS XR Software, which causes an infinite loop. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific BGP update from a BGP neighbor peer session of an affected device; an authorized user must then issue a show bgp command for the vulnerability to be exploited. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to prevent authorized users from properly monitoring the BGP status and prevent BGP from processing new updates, resulting in outdated information in the routing and forwarding tables.
- Record
EUVD-2020-24720- CVSS 3.1
- 4.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-grqx-688p-cm63 No score
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR...
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to prevent authorized users from monitoring the BGP status and cause the BGP process to stop processing new updates, resulting in a denial of service (DOS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect calculation of lexicographical order when displaying additional path information within Cisco IOS XR Software, which causes an infinite loop. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific BGP update from a BGP neighbor peer session of an affected device; an authorized user must then issue a show bgp command for the vulnerability to be exploited. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to prevent authorized users from properly monitoring the BGP status and prevent BGP from processing new updates, resulting in outdated information in the routing and forwarding tables.
- Record
GHSA-grqx-688p-cm63- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
4.3
A vulnerability in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) additional paths feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to prevent authorized users from monitoring the BGP status and cause the BGP process to stop processing new updates, resulting in a denial of service (DOS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect calculation of lexicographical order when displaying additional path information within Cisco IOS XR Software, which causes an infinite loop. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specific BGP update from a BGP neighbor peer session of an affected device; an authorized user must then issue a show bgp command for the vulnerability to be exploited. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to prevent authorized users from properly monitoring the BGP status and prevent BGP from processing new updates, resulting in outdated information in the routing and forwarding tables.
- Record
CVE-2020-3449- CVSS 3.1
- 4.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - CVSS 2.0
- 4.3 Medium
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-754
- 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-2020-3449 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 4.3) in Cisco Ios Xr Software, published August 17, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.06%, the 64th percentile. No source names a fixed version.