CVE-2025-20162

HIGH
Published May 7, 2025 Modified Jul 11, 2025 CWE-400

Description

A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping security feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a full interface queue wedge, which could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of DHCP request packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending DHCP request packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause packets to wedge in the queue, creating a DoS condition for downstream devices of the affected system and requiring that the system restart to drain the queue. Note: This vulnerability can be exploited with either unicast or broadcast DHCP packets on a VLAN that does not have DHCP snooping enabled.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

8.6
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affected Products

Vendor Product
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe
cisco ios_xe

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-20162? +
A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping security feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a full interface queue wedge, which could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of DHCP request packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending DHCP request packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause packets to wedge in the queue, creating a DoS condition for downstream devices of the affected system and requiring that the system restart to drain the queue. Note: This vulnerability can be exploited with either unicast or broadcast DHCP packets on a VLAN that does not have DHCP snooping enabled. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.6 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2025-20162? +
CVE-2025-20162 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.6 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching.
What products are affected by CVE-2025-20162? +
CVE-2025-20162 affects products from cisco, specifically: ios_xe. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-20162? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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