Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw can let a logged-in remote user crash and reload an affected Cisco IOS or IOS XE device through SSH, causing a denial of service. The issue affects availability, not data confidentiality or integrity. Business risk is highest where SSH management is reachable by many users or across broad networks.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority network availability issue for managed Cisco infrastructure. Prioritize internet-facing or broadly reachable management interfaces, then core routing and switching devices where reloads would disrupt business operations.
Technical view
Cisco describes an SSH server state-machine flaw where an internal state is represented incorrectly. An authenticated remote attacker can establish SSH and use a specific traffic pattern that triggers an error condition, causing device reload. CVSS 3.0 is 7.7, with network access, low complexity, low privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely on Cisco IOS or IOS XE devices with affected software and SSH enabled. The bundle specifically names Cisco IOS 12.2(58)SE, but exact affected and fixed releases should be confirmed in Cisco's advisory.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. Exploitation requires authentication and SSH reachability, which lowers internet-wide risk but remains serious for compromised credentials, shared admin accounts, or exposed management planes.
Researcher notes
Key constraints are authenticated access and SSH reachability. The root cause is incorrect state representation in the SSH state machine. The provided evidence supports denial of service by reload, not code execution, data theft, or unauthenticated compromise.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco's advisory for affected and fixed releases for each device train.
- Apply Cisco-supported fixed software when available for the deployed release.
- Restrict SSH management access to trusted administrative networks only.
- Remove unnecessary SSH access and unused administrative accounts.
- Monitor for unexpected device reloads associated with SSH management activity.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco IOS and IOS XE devices and their exact software releases.
- Confirm whether SSH server is enabled on each device.
- Check whether SSH is reachable beyond trusted management networks.
- Compare deployed releases against Cisco's advisory and CVE records.
- Review device reload history for unexplained availability events.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-371: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-3200 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.7 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H3.14Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
7.7HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20200603 Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Secure Shell Denial of Service VulnerabilityCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
State Issues
State Issues represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.