NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

CVE-2020-3560: Cisco Aironet Access Points UDP Flooding Denial of Service Vulnerability

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 34/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 1.4% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 72.7% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

A vulnerability in Cisco Aironet Access Points (APs) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper resource management while processing specific packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of crafted UDP packets to a specific port on an affected device. A successful exploit could either allow the attacker to tear down the connection between the AP and the wireless LAN controller, resulting in the affected device not being able to process client traffic, or cause the vulnerable device to reload, triggering a DoS condition. After the attack, the affected device should automatically recover its normal functions without manual intervention.

HighCVSS 8.6 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

BDU:2020-04978

Published: Sep 24, 2020
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
EPSS: 1.4% · 72th percentile
CWE: CWE-400

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 34 / 40 · 8.6 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 1.4%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 8.6
CNA · cisco: 8.6; agree

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
cisco	wireless lan controller	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:wireless_lan_controller
cisco	wireless lan controller software	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:wireless_lan_controller_software
cisco	1111-4pwe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1111-4pwe
cisco	1111-8plteeawb	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1111-8plteeawb
cisco	1111-8pwb	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1111-8pwb
cisco	1113-8plteeawe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1113-8plteeawe
cisco	1113-8pmwe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1113-8pmwe
cisco	1113-8pwe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1113-8pwe
cisco	1116-4plteeawe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1116-4plteeawe
cisco	1116-4pwe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1116-4pwe
cisco	1117-4plteeawe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1117-4plteeawe
cisco	1117-4pmlteeawe	cpe:2.3:h:cisco:1117-4pmlteeawe

and 37 more

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

cisco access pointsbefore 16.12.4a
cisco aironet access point software17.1.2.6
cisco aironet access point software17.1.2.9
cisco aironet access point software17.2.0.37
cisco aironet access point software8.10(105.0)
cisco aironet access point software8.10(105.4)
cisco aironet access point software8.5(154.27)
cisco aironet access point software8.8(125.0)
cisco business access points10.0 and later · before 10.1.1.0
cisco wireless lan controller8.9 and later · before 8.10.112.0
cisco wireless lan controller software8.6 and later · before 8.8.130.0
cisco wireless lan controller softwarebefore 8.5.161.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

Cisco Cisco Aironet Access Point Software
- n/aaffected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2020-3559Cisco Aironet Access Point Authentication Flood Denial of Service Vulnerability
34Monitor
CVE-2020-3552Cisco Aironet Access Points Ethernet Wired Clients Denial of Service Vulnerability
29Monitor
CVE-2015-0622The Wireless Intrusion Detection (aka WIDS) functionality on Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) devices allows remote attackers to cause a
28Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2019-1796Apr 17, 2019 · Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Software IAPP Message Handling Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
26Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2019-1799Apr 17, 2019 · Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Software IAPP Message Handling Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
26Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2019-1800Apr 17, 2019 · Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Software IAPP Message Handling Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: none
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: None
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-400 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1function expand(node) {
2  return node.children.map(expand);
3}

Fixed

1const MAX_DEPTH = 32;
2function expand(node, depth = 0) {
3  if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");
4  return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));
5}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Endpoint Denial of ServiceT1499

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-aironet-dos-VHr2zG9y

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records