CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-3216 — Cisco Ios Xe Sd-Wan security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to bypass authentication and gain unrestricted access to the root shell of an affected device. The vulnerability exists because the affected software has insufficient authentication mechanisms for certain commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by stopping the boot initialization of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass authentication and gain unrestricted access to the root shell of the affected device.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (2.0)
Published
2020-06-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.9.0
  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.9.1
  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.9.2
  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.9.3
  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.9.4
  • cisco / ios_xe_sd-wan / 16.10.0

Showing 6 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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