CVE-2026-20084
Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches BOOTP VLAN Leakage and Denial of Service Vulnerability
Description
A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BOOTP packets to be forwarded between VLANs, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of BOOTP packets on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BOOTP request packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to forward BOOTP packets from one VLAN to another, resulting in BOOTP VLAN leakage and potentially leading to high CPU utilization. This makes the device unreachable (either through console or remote management) and unable to forward traffic, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: This vulnerability can be exploited with either unicast or broadcast BOOTP packets. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.
INFO
Published Date :
March 25, 2026, 4:16 p.m.
Last Modified :
March 25, 2026, 4:16 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
Yes !
Source :
[email protected]
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-20084
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
No affected product recoded yet
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | [email protected] |
Solution
- Update Cisco IOS XE Software to the latest version.
- Configure DHCP snooping to restrict BOOTP packet forwarding.
- Implement access controls to filter BOOTP packets.
- Monitor network traffic for anomalous BOOTP activity.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-20084.
| URL | Resource |
|---|---|
| https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-bootp-WuBhNBxA |
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-20084 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-20084
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-20084 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-20084 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
New CVE Received by [email protected]
Mar. 25, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BOOTP packets to be forwarded between VLANs, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of BOOTP packets on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BOOTP request packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to forward BOOTP packets from one VLAN to another, resulting in BOOTP VLAN leakage and potentially leading to high CPU utilization. This makes the device unreachable (either through console or remote management) and unable to forward traffic, resulting in a DoS condition. Note: This vulnerability can be exploited with either unicast or broadcast BOOTP packets. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability. Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H Added CWE CWE-400 Added Reference https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-bootp-WuBhNBxA