CVE-2023-20169 Denial of service in Cisco NX-OS Software

High 7.4 Published Updated

An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by sending crafted IS-IS packets to Cisco Nexus switches, triggering a device reload.

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-2023-20169?

CVE-2023-20169 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 23 Aug 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in the Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol of Cisco NX-OS Software for the Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause the IS-IS process to unexpectedly restart, which could cause an affected device to reload. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation when parsing an ingress IS-IS packet. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted IS-IS packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition due to the unexpected restart of the IS-IS process, which could cause the affected device to reload. Note: The IS-IS protocol is a routing protocol. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be Layer 2 adjacent to the affected device.

Weakness: CWE-20, CWE-788

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20169?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Nx-Os.

How do I fix CVE-2023-20169?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20169 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-2023-20169 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20169 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Nx-Os vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-rjhj-97m9-mffq.

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