CVE-2020-3227: Cisco IOx for IOS XE Software Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-06-03 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

A vulnerability in the authorization controls for the Cisco IOx application hosting infrastructure in Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute Cisco IOx API commands without proper authorization. The vulnerability is due to incorrect handling of requests for authorization tokens. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using a crafted API call to request such a token. An exploit could allow the attacker to obtain an authorization token and execute any of the IOx API commands on an affected device.

Affected products

Cisco IOS XE: 3.11.6e, 16.3.1, 16.3.1a, 16.3.2, 16.3.3, 16.3.4 (+64)

References

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