CVE intelligence

CVE-2026-20301

Vulnerability intelligence

Published Aug 5, 2026Sources checked Sep 12, 2026

8.6HIGHCVSS out of 10

What this means

Review the available evidence

CVE-2026-20301 and is rated High severity with a CVSS score of 8.6. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.

CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog

EPSS0.3%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability

Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field

Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships

Overview

What is CVE-2026-20301?

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.