# CVE-2020-3217: Cisco IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, and NX-OS Software One Platform Kit Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service on Cisco IOS XR devices via malicious CDP messages.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Jun 2020
- **Updated:** 15 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hjm6-73rx-9qg9

## What is CVE-2020-3217?

CVE-2020-3217 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 3 Jun 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Topology Discovery Service of Cisco One Platform Kit (onePK) in Cisco IOS Software, Cisco IOS XE Software, Cisco IOS XR Software, and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient length restrictions when the onePK Topology Discovery Service parses Cisco Discovery Protocol messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol message to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a stack overflow, which could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges, or to cause a process crash, which could result in a reload of the device and cause a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3217?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Cisco Ios, Cisco Ios Xe, Cisco Ios Xr, Cisco Nx-Os.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-3217?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3217 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-3217 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios

- [CVE-2017-12240](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12240/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software DHCP Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-3881](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-3881/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0167](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0167/): Cisco IOS, XR, and XE Software Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6736](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6736/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6737/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3217 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-3217 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 3 Jun 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3217/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3217/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3217
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3217
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3217

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3217/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.