CVE-2026-20301

Cisco IOS Software and IOS XE Software Extensible Messaging Client Protocol Denial of Service Vulnerability

Severity
High 8.6
CVSS 3.1
Exploited
Not listed
EPSS
Discovered by
Vendor
Published by the vendor
Published
Aug 5, 2026
Assigned by cisco

Description

A vulnerability in the Extensible Messaging Client Protocol (XMCP), also referred to as the External Client protocol, of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of malformed XMCP packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed XMCP packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The attacker does not need the XMCP client username to exploit this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-606

Affected products

Vendor Product Category Matched by
Cisco Cisco IOS Software Routing & Switching cna-assigner
Cisco Cisco IOS XE Software Routing & Switching cna-assigner
Vendor-reported affected versions (2)
  • Cisco · Cisco IOS XE Software
  • Cisco · IOS