Resource exhaustion in Cisco iOS Xe Software
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.
Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.6 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.005 (41.9th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 42nd percentile — 41.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Cisco iOS Xe Software — versions 16.11.1, 16.11.1a, 16.11.2
- Cisco iOS Xe — versions 16.11.1, 16.11.1a, 16.11.1s
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-20162?
- CVE-2025-20162 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco iOS Xe Software, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 8.6/10. Published 2025-05-07.
- How severe is CVE-2025-20162?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.6 out of 10.