CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-3517 — Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.6

A vulnerability in the Cisco Fabric Services component of Cisco FXOS Software and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated attacker to cause process crashes, which could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The attack vector is configuration dependent and could be remote or adjacent. For more information about the attack vector, see the Details section of this advisory. The vulnerability is due to insufficient error handling when the affected software parses Cisco Fabric Services messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious Cisco Fabric Services messages to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a reload of an affected device, which could result in a DoS condition.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.6 (3.1)
Published
2020-08-27
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-476

Affected products

  • cisco / firepower_extensible_operating_system
  • cisco / nx-os / 6.0(2)a3(1)
  • cisco / nx-os / 6.0(2)a3(2)
  • cisco / nx-os / 6.0(2)a3(4)
  • cisco / nx-os / 6.0(2)a4(1)
  • cisco / nx-os / 6.0(2)a4(2)

Showing 6 representative product identities from 290 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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