CVE-2020-3396Cisco IOS XE Software IOx Guest Shell USB SSD Namespace Protection Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
- 6.8MediumCVSS base score
- 0.32%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 74% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
A vulnerability in the file system on the pluggable USB 3.0 Solid State Drive (SSD) for Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, physical attacker to remove the USB 3.0 SSD and modify sensitive areas of the file system, including the namespace container protections. The vulnerability occurs because the USB 3.0 SSD control data is not stored on the internal boot flash. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by removing the USB 3.0 SSD, modifying or deleting files on the USB 3.0 SSD by using another device, and then reinserting the USB 3.0 SSD on the original device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to remove container protections and perform file actions outside the namespace of the container with root privileges.
Timeline
ID reserved
By cisco
- 10 months later
· 10 months later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| ciscoCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.32% · top 74% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.8.
Affected products
- affected n/a
What to do
Exploitation: The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.
References
References1
- 20200924 Cisco IOS XE Software IOx Guest Shell USB SSD Namespace Protection Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCOx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-24667 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-3396)Record last updated .