CVE-2020-3497 Cisco IOS XE Wireless Controller Software for the Catalyst 9000 Family CAPWAP Denial of Service Vulnerabilities

High 7.4 Published 24 Sep 2020 Updated 13 Nov 2024

Unauthenticated adjacent attackers can crash Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless controllers by sending malformed CAPWAP packets, causing a denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2020-3497?

CVE-2020-3497 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 24 Sep 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Multiple vulnerabilities in the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol processing of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition of an affected device. These vulnerabilities are due to insufficient validation of CAPWAP packets. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending a malformed CAPWAP packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to crash and reload, resulting in a DoS condition on the affected device.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3497?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Ios Xe.

How do I fix CVE-2020-3497?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3497 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2020-3497 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3497 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Ios Xe vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-8mgm-98f6-65gc.