CVE-2025-20141

Control plane traffic interruption via packet punts

Published Mar 12, 2025 · Updated Mar 21, 2025

Denial of service in Cisco IOS XR Software 7.9.2 allows attackers to stop control plane traffic with crafted packets. The packet-punt path incorrectly sends specific line-card traffic to the route processor's Linux stack; Cisco does not disclose which resource is left unbounded. Exploitation requires adjacency to an affected white-box, NCS 540, NCS 5500, or NCS 5700 platform, and the reported consequence is limited to interruption of control plane traffic.

CVSS severity7.4
High
EPSS probability0.24%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Denial of service in Cisco IOS XR Software 7.9.2 allows attackers to stop control plane traffic with crafted packets. The packet-punt path incorrectly sends specific line-card traffic to the route processor's Linux stack; Cisco does not disclose which resource is left unbounded. Exploitation requires adjacency to an affected white-box, NCS 540, NCS 5500, or NCS 5700 platform, and the reported consequence is limited to interruption of control plane traffic.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-20141
Published
Mar 12, 2025
Updated
Mar 21, 2025
Vendor
ClamAV
Product
Cisco IOS XR Software
Classifications
CWE-770, T1499.004
Attack vector
adjacent
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 12, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Mar 21, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=7.9.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectoradjacent
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

ClamAV · Cisco IOS XR Softwareversion=7.9.2

Published CVSS scores

7.4CiscoCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:X/RL:X/RC:X

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectoradjacent
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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