CVE-2025-20140
HighWhat is CVE-2025-20140?
A vulnerability in the Wireless Network Control daemon (wncd) of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent wireless attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to improper memory management. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of IPv6 network requests from an associated wireless IPv6 client to an affected device. To associate a client to a device, an attacker may first need to authenticate to the network, or associate freely in the case of a configured open network. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the wncd process to consume available memory and eventually cause the device to stop responding, resulting in a DoS condition.
CVSS Vector Breakdown
CVSS 3.1Exploitable from an adjacent network (e.g. same LAN, Wi-Fi segment, Bluetooth).
No special conditions required. Exploit can be performed reliably and repeatedly.
No authentication required. Any anonymous user can exploit this vulnerability.
No user interaction required. Exploit runs without any victim action.
Exploiting the vulnerability can affect other components beyond the vulnerable one.
No confidentiality impact. Sensitive data is not exposed.
No integrity impact. Data cannot be modified.
Complete denial of service. The component becomes fully unavailable.
Known Affected Devices
FAQ
CVE-2025-20140 has a CVSS score of 7.4/10, rated as High. This is a high severity vulnerability and should be patched as soon as possible.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) rates vulnerability severity from 0.0 to 10.0. CVE-2025-20140 scores 7.4/10 (High). Scores 9.0–10.0 are Critical, 7.0–8.9 are High, 4.0–6.9 are Medium, and below 4.0 are Low.
The list of devices confirmed to be affected by CVE-2025-20140 is shown in the "Affected Devices" section above. Check your firmware version against the vendor security advisory and apply the latest patch.
Apply the latest firmware or software update from the vendor. Check the References section above for official advisories and patch notes. If no patch is available, consider disabling the affected feature or isolating the device from untrusted networks.