CVE-2020-3118
Published 2020-02-05 · Updated 2026-06-17 · Source psirt@cisco.com
Summary
CVE-2020-3118 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) vulnerability in Cisco IOS XR. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed; US federal agencies had to remediate it by May 3, 2022. CISA does not currently list it as used in ransomware campaigns. Cisco has 102 vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog, 7 of them linked to ransomware.
All 102 known-exploited Cisco vulnerabilities →Description
A vulnerability in the Cisco Discovery Protocol implementation for Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a reload on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of string input from certain fields in Cisco Discovery Protocol messages. 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 cause a stack overflow, which could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges on an affected device. 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).
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA Known-Exploited Vulnerability
Product: Cisco — IOS XR
Name: Cisco IOS XR Software Discovery Protocol Format String Vulnerability
Date added: 2021-11-03 · Due: 2022-05-03
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/156203/Cisco-Discovery-Protocol-CDP-Remote-Device-Takeover.html
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20200205-iosxr-cdp-rce
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/156203/Cisco-Discovery-Protocol-CDP-Remote-Device-Takeover.html
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20200205-iosxr-cdp-rce
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-3118

