Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-20321

HighDDoS

Published: 29 February 2024

Published
29 February 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 8.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0046 64.4th percentile
Risk Priority 17 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-20321 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 35.6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

A vulnerability in the External Border Gateway Protocol (eBGP) implementation of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability exists because eBGP traffic is mapped…

more

to a shared hardware rate-limiter queue. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending large amounts of network traffic with certain characteristics through an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause eBGP neighbor sessions to be dropped, leading to a DoS condition in the network.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

cisco
nx-os
10.1\(1\), 10.1\(2\), 10.1\(2t\), 10.2\(1\), 10.2\(1q\)

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.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

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.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Planning and coordination of security activities (scans, tests, maintenance) directly imposes scheduling and throttling that prevents those activities from producing uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Performance metrics and monitoring inherently track resource consumption patterns, making uncontrolled consumption easier to detect and mitigate.

addresses: CWE-400 CWE-770

Terminating idle connections bounds resource consumption that would otherwise allow uncontrolled accumulation of open sessions.

References