CVE-2022-20623
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Bidirectional Forwarding Detection Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
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
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Bidirectional Forwarding Detection Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
- Record
CVE-2022-20623- 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 - Weakness
- CWE-399
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-25873
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
- Record
EUVD-2022-25873- 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 - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-p4xm-j739-93q3 No score
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of...
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
- Record
GHSA-p4xm-j739-93q3- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
- Record
CVE-2022-20623- 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 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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-399
- 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-2022-20623 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.6) in Cisco Nx-os Software, published February 23, 2022. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 11.9%, the 96th percentile. No source names a fixed version.