# CVE-2023-20268: Cisco Access Point Software Uncontrolled Resource Consumption Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can exhaust resources on Cisco access points by sending specific wireless packets, causing service disruption.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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:** 27 Sep 2023
- **Updated:** 12 Dec 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p572-r8g2-hv9h

## What is CVE-2023-20268?

CVE-2023-20268 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software, published on 27 Sep 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 packet processing functionality of Cisco access point (AP) software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to exhaust resources on an affected device. 

This vulnerability is due to insufficient management of resources when handling certain types of traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of specific wireless packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to consume resources on an affected device. A sustained attack could lead to the disruption of the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) tunnel and intermittent loss of wireless client traffic.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20268?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Cisco Business 150ax Firmware, Cisco Business 151axm Firmware, Cisco Catalyst 9800 Embedded Wireless Controller Firmware, Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20268?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20268 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-20268 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20268 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software

- [CVE-2023-20112](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20112/): Cisco Access Point Software Association Request Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 7.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20268 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20268 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software, published on 27 Sep 2023. 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-2023-20268 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Wireless Lan Controller 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-2023-20268/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20268/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20268
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20268
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20268

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20268/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.