Overview

Cisco has disclosed a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-20115) in its implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) within IOS and IOS XE software. This flaw, if exploited, can allow an attacker to cause service disruptions, leading to potential network outages or malicious route manipulation.

Description

The vulnerability resides in the BGP message processing function, which fails to properly validate certain crafted packets. Attackers can exploit this weakness remotely, causing affected devices to crash or enter a denial-of-service (DoS) state. Since BGP is a core protocol responsible for internet routing, any exploitation of this flaw could have widespread consequences for network infrastructure and service availability.

Impact

Remote attackers can cause disruption of network services, Potential redirection of internet traffic, Increased risk of BGP hijacking attacks, and Degradation of critical network operations, affecting ISPs, enterprises, and cloud service providers.

Solution

Cisco has released patches and software updates to mitigate this vulnerability. Users and administrators of affected product versions are advised to update to the latest version immediately.

References

• 1. https://securityonline.info/cisco-alerts-on-public-disclosure-of-cve-2025-20115-bgp-flaw-puts-networks-at-risk
• 2. https://www.cisco.com/security/advisories