Symptom
A vulnerability in the handling of specific packets that are punted from a line card to a route processor in Cisco IOS XR Software Release 7.9.2 could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause control plane traffic to stop working on multiple Cisco IOS XR platforms.
This vulnerability is due to incorrect handling of packets that are punted to the route processor. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending traffic, which must be handled by the Linux stack on the route processor, to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause control plane traffic to stop working, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.
This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-xr792-bWfVDPY
This advisory is part of the March 2025 release of the Cisco IOS XR Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: March 2025 Semiannual Cisco IOS XR Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication.
The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) validates only the affected and fixed release information that is documented in this advisory.
Conditions
Please refer to the Security Advisory.
Workaround
Please refer to the Security Advisory.
Further Problem Description
Please refer to the Security Advisory.
PSIRT Evaluation
The Cisco PSIRT has assigned this bug the following CVSS version 3 score. The Base CVSS score as of the time of evaluation is 7.4:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/cvssCalculator.x?vector=CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVE ID CVE-2025-20141 has been assigned to document this issue.
Additional information on Cisco's security vulnerability policy can be found at the following URL:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/resources/security_vulnerability_policy.html
