CVE-2023-20082

Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches Secure Boot Bypass Vulnerability

MEDIUM

6.8

CVSS Score

Published: March 23, 2023 at 12:00 AM UTC

Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:29 AM UTC

45 products affected across 1 vendorIOS XeCatalyst 9300Catalyst 9300-48P-A

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Severity

MEDIUM6.8

Exploit prediction

EPSS 0.4%

SSVC

No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches could allow an authenticated, local attacker with level-15 privileges or an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the device to execute persistent code at boot time and break the chain of trust. This vulnerability is due to errors that occur when retrieving the public release key that is used for image signature verification. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying specific variables in the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash memory of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute persistent code on the underlying operating system. Note: In Cisco IOS XE Software releases 16.11.1 and later, the complexity of an attack using this vulnerability is high. However, an attacker with level-15 privileges could easily downgrade the Cisco IOS XE Software on a device to a release that would lower the attack complexity.

Affected

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

IOS Xe · Cisco

95%

v < 17.3.717.4 ≤ v < 17.6.517.7

Affected range stops below 17.3.7, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 17.6.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

cisco-catalyst-9300 (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24p-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24p-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24s-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24s-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24t-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24t-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24u-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24u-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24ux-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-24ux-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48p-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48p-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48s-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48s-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48t-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48t-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48u-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48u-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48un-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48un-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48uxm-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300-48uxm-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24p-4g-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24p-4g-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24p-4x-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24p-4x-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24t-4g-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24t-4g-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24t-4x-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-24t-4x-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48p-4g-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48p-4g-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48p-4x-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48p-4x-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48t-4g-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48t-4g-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48t-4x-a (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-48t-4x-e (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300l-stack (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300lm (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9300x (environment)

IOS Xe Rom Monitor · Cisco

60%

All versions

Catalyst 9300 · Ciscodevice

80%

All versions

Catalyst 9300-24P-A · Ciscodevice

80%

All versions

Catalyst 9300-24P-E · Ciscodevice

80%

All versions