What is CVE-2022-20945?

CVE-2022-20945 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst 9800-40, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 7.4/10. Published 2022-09-30.

How severe is CVE-2022-20945?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.4 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Cisco Catalyst 9800-40

CVE-2022-20945

A vulnerability in the 802.11 association frame validation of Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series Access Points (APs) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of certain parameters within association request frames received by the AP. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted 802.11 association request to a nearby device. An exploit could allow the attacker to unexpectedly reload the device, resulting in a DoS condition.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2022-09-30 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.4 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (38.7th percentile), scored 2026-10-20.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 39th percentile — 38.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ap-assoc… (vendor-advisory, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-20945?: CVE-2022-20945 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst 9800-40, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 7.4/10. Published 2022-09-30.
How severe is CVE-2022-20945?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.4 out of 10.