CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-3217 — Cisco Ios security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.8

A vulnerability in the Topology Discovery Service of Cisco One Platform Kit (onePK) in Cisco IOS Software, Cisco IOS XE Software, Cisco IOS XR Software, and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient length restrictions when the onePK Topology Discovery Service parses Cisco Discovery Protocol messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol message to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a stack overflow, which could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges, or to cause a process crash, which could result in a reload of the device and cause a DoS condition.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2020-06-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-20

Affected products

  • cisco / ios / 12.2(6)i1
  • cisco / ios / 12.4(25e)jao7
  • cisco / ios / 15.0(2)sg11a
  • cisco / ios / 15.1(3)svr1
  • cisco / ios / 15.2(1)sy
  • cisco / ios / 15.2(1)sy0a

Showing 6 representative product identities from 663 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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