# CVE-2022-20870: Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst Switches MPLS Denial of Service Vulnerability

> Remote attackers can cause Cisco Catalyst switches to reload by sending malformed MPLS packets, resulting in a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.1/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:** 10 Oct 2022
- **Updated:** 1 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-prm7-p5hm-qq42

## What is CVE-2022-20870?

CVE-2022-20870 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 10 Oct 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the egress MPLS packet processing function of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 3650, Catalyst 3850, and Catalyst 9000 Family Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of IPv4 traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed packet out of an affected MPLS-enabled interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-130 (Improper Handling of Length Parameter Inconsistency)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20870?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Ios Xe.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-20870?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20870 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-20870 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20870 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios Xe

- [CVE-2023-20198](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20198/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0151](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0151/): Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software Quality of Service Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-20273](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20273/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection (high 7.2, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-20188](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20188/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco IOS XE Software (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-34770](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34770/): Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers CAPWAP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-20870 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-20870 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 10 Oct 2022. 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-2022-20870 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios Xe. 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-2022-20870/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20870/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-20870
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-20870
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-20870

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20870/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.