CVE-2026-20051
Cisco Nexus 3600-R and 9500-R Series Switching Platforms Layer 2 Loop Denial of Service Vulnerability
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.4 High
- Published
- Feb 25, 2026
- Updated
- Feb 25, 2026
- Reserved
- Oct 8, 2025
Description
A vulnerability with the Ethernet VPN (EVPN) Layer 2 ingress packet processing of Cisco Nexus 3600 Platform Switches and Cisco Nexus 9500-R Series Switching Platforms could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to trigger a Layer 2 traffic loop.
This vulnerability is due to a logic error when processing a crafted Layer 2 ingress frame. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a stream of crafted Ethernet frames through the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a Layer 2 Virtual eXtensible LAN (VxLAN) traffic loop, which, in turn, could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This Layer 2 loop could oversubscribe the bandwidth on network interfaces, which would result in all data plane traffic being dropped. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must be Layer 2-adjacent to the affected device. Note: To stop active exploitation of this vulnerability, manual intervention is required to both stop the crafted traffic and flap all involved network interfaces. For additional assistance if a Layer 2 loop that is related to this vulnerability is suspected, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or the proper support provider.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.4 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H | cisco |
Weaknesses
- CWE-457 Use of Uninitialized Variable
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
Cisco NX-OS SoftwareCisco |
|
References
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