CVE-2022-20623 | Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Bidirectional Forwarding Detection Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the rate limiter for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) traffic of Cisco NX-OS Software for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to a logic error in the BFD rate limiter functionality. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted stream of traffic through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause BFD traffic to be dropped, resulting in BFD session flaps. BFD session flaps can cause route instability and dropped traffic, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

Published: 2022-02-23 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-20623 is rated High Risk (66.8/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 12.06%, 96th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-20623

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 13.09% 12.06% -1.02%
2 2025-12-22 14.72% 13.09% -1.63%
3 2025-11-21 — 14.72% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-20623

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 4.0 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.1 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-20623

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-20623

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco nx-os >= 7.0\(3\)i6\(2\), <= 7.0\(3\)i7\(3\) cpe:2.3:o:cisco:nx-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco nx-os >= 7.0\(3\)i6\(2\), <= 9.3\(8\) cpe:2.3:o:cisco:nx-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco nx-os >= 10.1\(1\), <= 10.2\(1\) cpe:2.3:o:cisco:nx-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-20623

cvelogic Threat Intelligence