CVE-2023-20100

Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers CAPWAP Join Denial of Service Vulnerability

MEDIUM
6.8
CVSS Score
Published: March 23, 2023 at 12:00 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:29 AM UTC
11 products affected across 1 vendorIOS XeCatalyst 9800-LCatalyst 9800-80

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Severity
MEDIUM6.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.8%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the access point (AP) joining process of the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error that occurs when certain conditions are met during the AP joining process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by adding an AP that is under their control to the network. The attacker then must ensure that the AP successfully joins an affected wireless controller under certain conditions. Additionally, the attacker would need the ability to restart a valid AP that was previously connected to the controller. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition.

Affected

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

cisco-catalyst-9800 (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-40 (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-40-wireless-controller (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-80 (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-80-wireless-controller (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-cl (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-embedded-wireless-controller (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-l (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-l-c (environment) · cisco-catalyst-9800-l-f (environment)
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions

Remediation

No guide yet

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

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

6.8MEDIUMcisco
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-694NVD-CWE-noinfo

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