Cisco IOS XE Software up to 17.15.1a DHCP resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cisco IOS XE Software. It has been declared as problematic. The impacted element is an unknown function of the component DHCP Handler. The manipulation results in resource consumption. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-20162. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Cisco IOS XE Software. Affected is some unknown processing of the component DHCP Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

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.

The advisory is shared for download at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-20162 since 10/10/2024. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 07/11/2025). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Router Operating System

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• IOS XE Software

Version

• 16.11.1
• 16.11.1a
• 16.11.1s
• 16.11.2
• 16.12.1
• 16.12.1a
• 16.12.1c
• 16.12.1s
• 16.12.2
• 16.12.2s
• 16.12.3
• 16.12.3s
• 16.12.4
• 16.12.5
• 16.12.6
• 16.12.7
• 16.12.8
• 17.1.1
• 17.1.1s
• 17.1.1t
• 17.1.3
• 17.2.1
• 17.2.1r
• 17.2.1v
• 17.2.2
• 17.2.3
• 17.3.1
• 17.3.1a
• 17.3.2
• 17.3.3
• 17.3.4
• 17.3.4a
• 17.3.5
• 17.3.6
• 17.3.7
• 17.3.8
• 17.3.8a
• 17.4.1
• 17.4.1a
• 17.4.1b
• 17.4.2
• 17.5.1
• 17.5.1a
• 17.6.1
• 17.6.1a
• 17.6.1y
• 17.6.2
• 17.6.3
• 17.6.3a
• 17.6.4
• 17.6.5
• 17.6.5a
• 17.6.6
• 17.6.6a
• 17.6.7
• 17.6.8
• 17.6.8a
• 17.7.1
• 17.7.1a
• 17.7.2
• 17.8.1
• 17.8.1a
• 17.9.1
• 17.9.1a
• 17.9.2
• 17.9.2a
• 17.9.3
• 17.9.3a
• 17.9.4
• 17.9.4a
• 17.9.5
• 17.9.5a
• 17.9.5e
• 17.9.5f
• 17.9.6
• 17.10.1
• 17.10.1a
• 17.11.1
• 17.11.1a
• 17.12.1
• 17.12.1a
• 17.12.2
• 17.12.3
• 17.12.3a
• 17.12.4
• 17.12.4a
• 17.12.4b
• 17.13.1
• 17.13.1a
• 17.14.1
• 17.14.1a
• 17.15.1
• 17.15.1a

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.cisco.com/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion