# CVE-2022-20824: Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Denial of Service and Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability

> An adjacent attacker can send malicious CDP packets to execute arbitrary code with root privileges or cause a denial of service on Cisco NX-OS devices.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/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:** 25 Aug 2022
- **Updated:** 6 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4h78-xq9p-vv4g

## What is CVE-2022-20824?

CVE-2022-20824 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Cisco NX-OS Software, published on 25 Aug 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 feature of Cisco FXOS Software and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper input validation of specific values that are within a Cisco Discovery Protocol message. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges or cause the Cisco Discovery Protocol process to crash and restart multiple times, which would cause the affected device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: Cisco Discovery Protocol is a Layer 2 protocol. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be in the same broadcast domain as the affected device (Layer 2 adjacent).

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20824?

It affects 144 products.


Products: Cisco Mds 9506 Firmware, Cisco Mds 9513 Firmware, Cisco Mds 9706 Firmware, Cisco Mds 9710 Firmware, Cisco Mds 9718 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 1000v Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3016 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3016q Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3048 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064-32t Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064-T Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064-X Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064t Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3064x Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3100-v Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3100-Z Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3100 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 3100v Firmware, Cisco Nexus 31108pc-v Firmware and 124 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-20824?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20824 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-20824 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-20824 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-20824 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Cisco NX-OS Software, published on 25 Aug 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-2022-20824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco NX-OS Software. 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-2022-20824/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20824/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-20824
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-20824
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-20824

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20824/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.