Unauthenticated denial of service via BOOTP VLAN leakage
Published Mar 25, 2026 · Updated Mar 25, 2026
Denial of service in DHCP snooping in Cisco IOS XE Software allows remote attackers to make affected switches unreachable via BOOTP packets. On Catalyst 9000 Series Switches, the DHCP snooping path forwards unicast or broadcast BOOTP requests across VLANs when an SVI helper targets a subinterface with a native VLAN. When DHCP snooping covers that native VLAN, the leaked traffic drives CPU utilization high enough to block console and remote management and stop packet forwarding.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in DHCP snooping in Cisco IOS XE Software allows remote attackers to make affected switches unreachable via BOOTP packets. On Catalyst 9000 Series Switches, the DHCP snooping path forwards unicast or broadcast BOOTP requests across VLANs when an SVI helper targets a subinterface with a native VLAN. When DHCP snooping covers that native VLAN, the leaked traffic drives CPU utilization high enough to block console and remote management and stop packet forwarding.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-20084
- Published
- Mar 25, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 25, 2026
- Vendor
- ClamAV
- Product
- Cisco IOS XE Software
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=16.10.1
- Affected versionversion=16.10.1e
- Affected versionversion=16.10.1s
- Affected versionversion=16.11.1
- Affected versionversion=16.11.1b
- Affected versionversion=16.11.1s
- Affected versionversion=16.12.1
- Affected versionversion=16.12.1c
- Affected versionversion=16.12.1s
- Affected versionversion=16.12.2
- Affected versionversion=16.12.2s
- Affected versionversion=16.12.3
- Affected versionversion=16.12.3a
- Affected versionversion=16.12.3s
- Affected versionversion=16.12.4
- Affected versionversion=16.12.4a
- Affected versionversion=16.12.5
- Affected versionversion=16.12.5b
- Affected versionversion=16.12.6
- Affected versionversion=16.12.6a
- Affected versionversion=16.12.7
- Affected versionversion=16.12.8
- Affected versionversion=16.6.1
- Affected versionversion=16.6.10
- Affected versionversion=16.6.2
- Affected versionversion=16.6.3
- Affected versionversion=16.6.4
- Affected versionversion=16.6.4a
- Affected versionversion=16.6.5
- Affected versionversion=16.6.6
- Affected versionversion=16.6.7
- Affected versionversion=16.6.8
- Affected versionversion=16.6.9
- Affected versionversion=16.7.1
- Affected versionversion=16.8.1
- Affected versionversion=16.8.1a
- Affected versionversion=16.8.1s
- Affected versionversion=16.9.1
- Affected versionversion=16.9.1s
- Affected versionversion=16.9.2
- Affected versionversion=16.9.3
- Affected versionversion=16.9.4
- Affected versionversion=16.9.5
- Affected versionversion=16.9.6
- Affected versionversion=16.9.7
- Affected versionversion=16.9.8
- Affected versionversion=17.10.1
- Affected versionversion=17.10.1b
- Affected versionversion=17.1.1
- Affected versionversion=17.11.1
- Affected versionversion=17.1.1s
- Affected versionversion=17.1.1t
- Affected versionversion=17.12.1
- Affected versionversion=17.12.1z5
- Affected versionversion=17.12.2
- Affected versionversion=17.12.3
- Affected versionversion=17.12.4
- Affected versionversion=17.12.5
- Affected versionversion=17.1.3
- Affected versionversion=17.13.1
- Affected versionversion=17.14.1
- Affected versionversion=17.15.1
- Affected versionversion=17.15.2
- Affected versionversion=17.15.2b
- Affected versionversion=17.15.3
- Affected versionversion=17.15.4
- Affected versionversion=17.15.4d
- Affected versionversion=17.16.1
- Affected versionversion=17.17.1
- Affected versionversion=17.18.1
- Affected versionversion=17.2.1
- Affected versionversion=17.2.1a
- Affected versionversion=17.3.1
- Affected versionversion=17.3.2
- Affected versionversion=17.3.2a
- Affected versionversion=17.3.3
- Affected versionversion=17.3.4
- Affected versionversion=17.3.5
- Affected versionversion=17.3.6
- Affected versionversion=17.3.7
- Affected versionversion=17.3.8
- Affected versionversion=17.3.8a
- Affected versionversion=17.4.1
- Affected versionversion=17.5.1
- Affected versionversion=17.6.1
- Affected versionversion=17.6.1y
- Affected versionversion=17.6.2
- Affected versionversion=17.6.3
- Affected versionversion=17.6.4
- Affected versionversion=17.6.5
- Affected versionversion=17.6.5a
- Affected versionversion=17.6.6
- Affected versionversion=17.6.6a
- Affected versionversion=17.6.7
- Affected versionversion=17.6.8
- Affected versionversion=17.7.1
- Affected versionversion=17.8.1
- Affected versionversion=17.9.1
- Affected versionversion=17.9.2
- Affected versionversion=17.9.3
- Affected versionversion=17.9.4
- Affected versionversion=17.9.4a
- Affected versionversion=17.9.5
- Affected versionversion=17.9.6
- Affected versionversion=17.9.6a
- Affected versionversion=17.9.7
- Affected versionversion=17.9.8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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