CVE-2026-20051

Cisco Nexus 3600-R and 9500-R Series Switching Platforms Layer 2 Loop Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
7.4
CVSS Score
Published: February 25, 2026 at 04:14 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:16 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorNx OS

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Severity
HIGH7.4
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability with the Ethernet VPN (EVPN) Layer 2 ingress packet processing of Cisco Nexus 3600 Platform Switches and Cisco Nexus 9500-R Series Switching Platforms could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to trigger a Layer 2 traffic loop. This vulnerability is due to a logic error when processing a crafted Layer 2 ingress frame. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a stream of crafted Ethernet frames through the targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a Layer 2 Virtual eXtensible LAN (VxLAN) traffic loop, which, in turn, could result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This Layer 2 loop could oversubscribe the bandwidth on network interfaces, which would result in all data plane traffic being dropped. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must be Layer 2-adjacent to the affected device. Note: To stop active exploitation of this vulnerability, manual intervention is required to both stop the crafted traffic and flap all involved network interfaces. For additional assistance if a Layer 2 loop that is related to this vulnerability is suspected, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or the proper support provider. 

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

7.4HIGHcisco
Attack Vector
ADJACENT_NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-457

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