Security Resilience

CVE-2023-20029

Memory Safety in Cisco Ios Xe 17.7.1 … 17.8.1

Memory Safety
Published
23 March 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0017 6th percentile
Risk Priority 34 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-20029 is a medium-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe. Its CVSS base score is 4.4 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the Meraki onboarding feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain root level privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient memory protection in the Meraki onboarding feature…

more

of an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying the Meraki registration parameters. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root.

CWE(s)
CWE-122NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
attack.mitre.org →
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-20363Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2026-20053Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20259Same product: Cisco Catalyst 9200
CVE-2023-20082Same product: Cisco Catalyst 9300
CVE-2025-20311Same product: Cisco Catalyst 9200
CVE-2025-20128Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20081Same product: Cisco Catalyst 9200
CVE-2023-20231Same product: Cisco Catalyst 9300
CVE-2024-20508Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-27091Same vendor: Cisco

Affected Assets

cisco
ios xe
17.7.1, 17.8.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References