# CVE-2020-3563: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software TCP Flood Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause a denial of service by exhausting system memory through TCP packet flooding, requiring a patch.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 Oct 2020
- **Updated:** 13 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x72c-fv45-75v9

## What is CVE-2020-3563?

CVE-2020-3563 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense, published on 21 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the packet processing functionality of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to inefficient memory management. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large number of TCP packets to a specific port on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust system memory, which could cause the device to reload unexpectedly. No manual intervention is needed to recover the device after it has reloaded.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3563?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-3563?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3563 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-3563 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3563 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense

- [CVE-2024-20412](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20412/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2024-20330](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20330/): Memory corruption in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2024-20339](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20339/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software for Firepower 2100 Series TLS Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2024-20351](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20351/): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Snort Firewall Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2023-20083](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20083/): Denial of service in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software (high 8.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-3563 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-3563 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense, published on 21 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3563 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense. 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-2020-3563/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3563/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-3563
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3563
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-3563

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3563/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.