CVE-2020-3273

Cisco Wireless LAN Controller 802.11 Generic Advertisement Service Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: April 15, 2020 at 08:11 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:17 AM UTC
5 products affected across 1 vendor5508 Wireless Controller Firmware5520 Wireless Controller Firmware5508 Wireless Controller

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the 802.11 Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) frame processing function of Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS). The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of the 802.11 GAS frames that are processed by an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted 802.11 GAS frame over the air to an access point (AP), and that frame would then be relayed to the affected WLC. Also, an attacker with Layer 3 connectivity to the WLC could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious 802.11 GAS payload in a Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) packet to the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload, resulting in a DoS.

Affected

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

cisco-5508-wireless-controller (same device)
cisco-5520-wireless-controller (same device)

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
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-119

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