CVE-2020-3165 Cisco NX-OS Software Border Gateway Protocol MD5 Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

High 8.2 Published Updated

Remote attackers can bypass BGP MD5 authentication on Cisco NX-OS devices if specific VRF name length conditions are met, allowing unauthorized BGP session establishment.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Over the internet
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
None listed

What is CVE-2020-3165?

CVE-2020-3165 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 26 Feb 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in the implementation of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Message Digest 5 (MD5) authentication in Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass MD5 authentication and establish a BGP connection with the device. The vulnerability occurs because the BGP MD5 authentication is bypassed if the peer does not have MD5 authentication configured, the NX-OS device does have BGP MD5 authentication configured, and the NX-OS BGP virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) name is configured to be greater than 19 characters. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by attempting to establish a BGP session with the NX-OS peer. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to establish a BGP session with the NX-OS device without MD5 authentication. The Cisco implementation of the BGP protocol accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly configured peers. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must send the malicious packets over a 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 affected system’s trusted network.

Weakness: CWE-798

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3165?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Nx-Os.

How do I fix CVE-2020-3165?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3165 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2020-3165 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Nx-Os vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-ggpf-8579-4r92.

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