# CVE-2022-20625: Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Service Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by sending malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol messages to Cisco NX-OS devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **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:** 23 Feb 2022
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-834w-q34x-hqfh

## What is CVE-2022-20625?

CVE-2022-20625 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System, published on 23 Feb 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Cisco Discovery Protocol service of Cisco FXOS Software and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause the service to restart, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of Cisco Discovery Protocol messages that are processed by the Cisco Discovery Protocol service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol messages to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the Cisco Discovery Protocol service to fail and restart. In rare conditions, repeated failures of the process could occur, which could cause the entire device to restart.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20625?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System, Cisco Nx-Os.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-20625?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20625 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-20625 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20625 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System

- [CVE-2018-0310](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0310/): Information disclosure in Cisco FXOS and NX-OS unknown (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2015-6435](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6435/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-1368](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1368/): Memory corruption in Cisco NX-OS Software (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-3456](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3456/): Cisco FXOS Software Firepower Chassis Manager Cross-Site Request Forgery Vulnerability (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-3172](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-3172/): Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Arbitrary Code Execution and Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-20625 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-20625 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System, published on 23 Feb 2022. 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-2022-20625 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System. 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-2022-20625/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20625/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-20625
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-20625
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-20625

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20625/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.