Cisco Security Advisoriescisco-sa-ios-xmcp-thbAr34t

Cisco IOS Software and IOS XE Software Extensible Messaging Client Protocol Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the Extensible Messaging Client Protocol (XMCP), also referred to as the External Client protocol, of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of malformed XMCP packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed XMCP packet to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The attacker does not need the XMCP client username to exploit this vulnerability. Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. There is a mitigation that addresses this vulnerability. This advisory is available at the following link:https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ios-xmcp-thbAr34t Security Impact Rating: High CVE: CVE-2026-20301

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HighCVSS not listedHigh severity

Scope

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Timeline

When this advisory changed

Aug 5, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC
Published by Cisco
The publication date reported by the vendor.
Aug 20, 2026 at 2:20 AM UTC
Added to SecurityAlert
We collected the advisory from the official source.
Aug 26, 2026 at 3:50 PM UTC
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Vulnerabilities

CVEs named in this advisory

CVE-2026-20301View CVSS, KEV, EPSS, and threat context

Source

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Vendor: Cisco
Advisory ID: cisco-sa-ios-xmcp-thbAr34t
Last source check: Sep 13, 2026 at 5:10 AM UTC

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