CVE-2020-3181

Cisco Email Security Appliance Uncontrolled Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: March 4, 2020 at 06:35 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:17 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorEmail Security Appliance

Using Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) by Cisco?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the malware detection functionality in Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) in Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Email Security Appliances (ESAs) could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to exhaust resources on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient control over system memory allocation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted email through the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause an email attachment that contains malware to be delivered to a user and cause email processing delays.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 13.0.0
Affected range stops below 13.0.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
LOW
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-400

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card