CVE-2025-20189: cisco cisco ios xe software Mismatched Memory Management Routines

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-20189 is a high (CVSS 7.4) Mismatched Memory Management Routines vulnerability in cisco cisco ios xe software. EPSS estimates a 0.25% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 07-05-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 07-05-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A vulnerability in the Cisco Express Forwarding functionality of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco ASR 903 Aggregation Services Routers with Route Switch Processor 3 (RSP3C) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to trigger a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper memory management when Cisco IOS XE Software is processing Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted ARP messages at a high rate over a period of time to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust system resources, which eventually triggers a reload of the active route switch processor (RSP). If a redundant RSP is not present, the router reloads.

• CWE-762Mismatched Memory Management RoutinesThe product attempts to return a memory resource to the system, but it calls a release function that is not compatible with the function that was originally used to allocate that resource.