Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw can let an unauthenticated attacker disrupt Cisco Aironet access points by causing controller disconnects or device reloads. The main business risk is wireless outage, not data theft. The source bundle says devices should recover automatically after the attack, but repeated traffic could still interrupt client connectivity.
Executive priority
Treat as a high-priority availability risk for sites dependent on Cisco Aironet wireless. Prioritize confirmation and remediation for production, guest, campus, healthcare, warehouse, or operational areas where wireless downtime directly affects work.
Technical view
CVE-2020-3560 is a Cisco Aironet AP software resource-management issue when processing specific UDP packets. Network-adjacent or remote attackers need no credentials or user interaction. Successful exploitation can prevent client traffic processing, tear down AP-to-controller connectivity, or trigger AP reloads, producing high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Organizations using Cisco Aironet Access Point Software. Exposure is more likely where APs can receive UDP traffic from untrusted networks or broad internal segments. Exact affected versions are not provided in the bundle, so confirm exposure against Cisco's advisory and asset inventory.
Exploitation context
The CVE describes unauthenticated remote denial of service via crafted UDP traffic. The bundle marks KEV as false, and no provided source states active exploitation. The practical impact is wireless service disruption through AP reloads or controller disconnects, with automatic recovery expected after the attack stops.
Researcher notes
Evidence supports a network-reachable, unauthenticated DoS caused by improper resource management, mapped to CWE-400. The bundle does not include affected version ranges, fixed release names, proof-of-concept status, or active exploitation evidence. Avoid assuming broader Cisco wireless products are affected.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco's advisory for affected and fixed software details.
- Inventory Cisco Aironet AP models and installed software versions.
- Apply Cisco-recommended fixed software if your versions are affected.
- Restrict untrusted UDP reachability to AP management and control interfaces where possible.
- Monitor wireless controller logs for AP disconnects and reload patterns.
Validation and detection
- Compare AP software versions against Cisco's advisory.
- Confirm APs are not exposed to unnecessary untrusted UDP traffic.
- Review WLC logs for unexplained disconnects, reloads, or client traffic loss.
- Check monitoring for recurring wireless outages matching AP reload events.
- Document compensating controls if patch status cannot be confirmed.
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-400: 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-2020-3560 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
- 8.6 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H3.94Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
8.6HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20200924 Cisco Aironet Access Points UDP Flooding 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.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.