CVE-2023-20051
Published: 05 April 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20051 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Cisco Packet Data Network Gateway. Its CVSS base score is 5.8 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 34.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24230
Vulnerability details
A vulnerability in the Vector Packet Processor (VPP) of Cisco Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to stop ICMP traffic from being processed over an IPsec connection. This vulnerability is due to the VPP improperly…
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handling a malformed packet. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) packet over an IPsec connection. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to stop ICMP traffic over an IPsec connection and cause a denial of service (DoS).
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.
Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.
Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.
Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.
Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.
Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.
Timely maintenance support and spare parts enable rapid recovery from failures induced by uncontrolled resource consumption, shortening the impact window of denial-of-service attacks.