Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-20434

Memory Safety in Cisco Ios Xe 16.10.1 … 17.9.5

Published
25 September 2024
Modified
08 October 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0026 17th percentile
Risk Priority 36 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-20434 is a medium-severity Integer Overflow or Wraparound (CWE-190) vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 17th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on the control plane of an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of frames with VLAN…

more

tag information. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted frames to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to render the control plane of the affected device unresponsive. The device would not be accessible through the console or CLI, and it would not respond to ping requests, SNMP requests, or requests from other control plane protocols. Traffic that is traversing the device through the data plane is not affected. A reload of the device is required to restore control plane services.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-20313Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2025-20202Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2026-20270Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2025-20155Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2023-20072Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2025-20197Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2024-20464Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2024-20306Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2018-0151Same product: Cisco Ios Xe
CVE-2026-20268Same product: Cisco Ios Xe

Affected Assets

cisco
ios xe
16.10.1, 16.10.1e, 16.10.1s, 16.11.1, 16.11.1b

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)
  • V5.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, unit tests) directly finds integer overflow defects before deployment.

Secure engineering principles require use of safe arithmetic constructs or language features that structurally eliminate integer overflow during calculation.

Input validation enforces bounds on values before arithmetic, stopping the conditions that trigger overflow or wraparound.

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require use of safe arithmetic, bounds checks, and testing that prevent integer 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.

finds

Security testing in development can detect integer overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and arithmetic checks that prevent integer overflows.

degrades

Application security requirements include bounds checking and safe arithmetic to avoid overflow conditions.

degrades

Secure architecture principles require defensive coding patterns that mitigate integer wraparound risks.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe integer operations and mandate overflow-safe constructs.

References