Cisco Issues Patches For 2 High-Severity IOS XR Flaws Under Active Attacks

CVE-2020-3566 is a denial-of-service flaw in the Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) feature of Cisco IOS XR Software, caused by insufficient queue management for Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packets. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can trigger it simply by sending crafted IGMP traffic to an affected device. Successful exploitation exhausts process memory, which can destabilize other processes on the router — including interior and exterior routing protocols — resulting in loss of availability (CVSS 3.1: 8.6 High, Availability:High, Scope:Changed). Affected are organizations running Cisco IOS XR (carrier-grade platforms such as the ASR 9000, NCS and CRS families) where the DVMRP feature is in use. The flaw is listed in CISA KEV (added 2021-11-03) and news reports describe active exploitation of IOS XR DoS flaws, though no public proof-of-concept code is known.

Do: Apply software updates per Cisco's instructions (Cisco has released, or will release, IOS XR updates that fix this flaw) and verify on each device whether DVMRP is configured and whether IGMP traffic is received from untrusted networks. As interim mitigation, limit or rate-limit IGMP traffic reaching IOS XR devices via ACLs or control-plane policing, and prioritize patching given the CISA KEV listing and reported active exploitation.

CVE-2020-3569 is a memory-exhaustion flaw in the Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) feature of Cisco IOS XR, caused by incorrect handling of IGMP packets. An unauthenticated, remote attacker triggers it by sending crafted IGMP traffic to an affected device, which can immediately crash the IGMP process or drive it to consume available memory until it crashes. Because the exhausted memory is shared, other processes on the router — including interior and exterior routing protocols — can become unstable, making this an availability-only but potentially broad denial-of-service on a core routing device (CVSS 8.6, availability impact high). Any network running Cisco IOS XR, typically on service-provider and large-enterprise routing platforms, is affected; the specific affected and fixed releases are listed in the Cisco advisory. CISA added the flaw to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, and news coverage reports active exploitation of the IOS XR flaws, while no public proof-of-concept is known.

Do: Apply the fixed Cisco IOS XR software per Cisco's advisory, which is also the required action listed for this CVE in the CISA KEV catalog. As an interim mitigation, restrict or filter untrusted IGMP traffic destined to IOS XR devices (e.g., via ACLs at network edges) and disable DVMRP where it is not needed. Inventory your estate for IOS XR devices with the DVMRP/IGMP feature enabled and prioritize internet- or untrusted-facing routers for patching.