CVE-2020-3415: Cisco NX-OS Software Data Management Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-08-27 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-787

Description

A vulnerability in the Data Management Engine (DME) of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted Cisco Discovery Protocol packet to a Layer 2-adjacent affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges or cause the Cisco Discovery Protocol process to crash and restart multiple times, causing the affected device to reload and resulting in a DoS condition. Note: Cisco Discovery Protocol is a Layer 2 protocol. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be in the same broadcast domain as the affected device (Layer 2 adjacent). Exploitation of this vulnerability also requires jumbo frames to be enabled on the interface that receives the crafted Cisco Discovery Protocol packets on the affected device.

Affected products

Cisco NX-OS: from 4.0 before 4.0\(4h\) — fixed in 4.0\(4h\)

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Cisco NX-OS 4.0\(4h\). Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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