Summary

• A vulnerability in the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) server feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with low privileges to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device.

  This vulnerability is due to improper handling of a malformed SCP request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a crafted command through SSH. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition.

  Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

  This advisory is available at the following link:
  https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-scp-dos-duAdXtCg

  This advisory is part of the March 2026 release of the Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: March 2026 Semiannual Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication.

Affected Products

• Vulnerable Products

  At the time of publication, this vulnerability affected Cisco IOS XE Software if the SCP server feature was enabled.

  For information about which Cisco software releases are vulnerable, see the Fixed Software section of this advisory.

  Determine SCP Server Configuration

  To determine whether a device has the SCP server configured, use the show running-config | include ip scp server enable command. If there is output, the device has the SCP server feature enabled and is affected by this vulnerability, as shown in the following example:

  Router# show running-config | include ip scp server enable
  ip scp server enable
  Router#

  If there is no output, the device is not affected by this vulnerability.

  Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable

  Only products listed in the Vulnerable Products section of this advisory are known to be affected by this vulnerability.

  Cisco has confirmed that this vulnerability does not affect the following Cisco products:

  • IOS Software
  • IOS XR Software
  • NX-OS Software

Workarounds

• There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. However, as a mitigation, administrators may disable the SCP server feature with the privilege EXEC CLI configuration command no ip scp server enable. 

  While this mitigation has been deployed and was proven successful in a test environment, customers should determine the applicability and effectiveness in their own environment and under their own use conditions. Customers should be aware that any workaround or mitigation that is implemented may negatively impact the functionality or performance of their network based on intrinsic customer deployment scenarios and limitations. Customers should not deploy any workarounds or mitigations before first evaluating the applicability to their own environment and any impact to such environment.

Fixed Software

• Cisco considers any workarounds and mitigations (if applicable) to be temporary solutions until an upgrade to a fixed software release is available. To fully remediate this vulnerability and avoid future exposure as described in this advisory, Cisco strongly recommends that customers upgrade to the fixed software indicated in this advisory.

  Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software

  To help customers determine their exposure to vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software, Cisco provides the Cisco Software Checker. This tool identifies any Cisco security advisories that impact a specific software release and the earliest release that fixes the vulnerabilities that are described in each advisory (“First Fixed”). If applicable, the tool also returns the earliest release that fixes all the vulnerabilities that are described in all the advisories that the Software Checker identifies (“Combined First Fixed”). 

  To use the tool, go to the Cisco Software Checker page and follow the instructions. Alternatively, use the following form to determine whether a release is affected by any Cisco Security Advisory. To use the form, follow these steps:

  1. Choose which advisories the tool will search—only this advisory, only advisories with a Critical or High Security Impact Rating (SIR), or all advisories.
  2. Enter a release number—for example, 15.9(3)M2 or 17.3.3.
  3. Click Check.

   

  Only this advisory All Critical and High advisories All advisories

   

Exploitation and Public Announcements

• 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.

Source

• This vulnerability was found during internal security testing by T. VE of the Cisco Advanced Security Initiatives Group (ASIG).

URL

• https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-scp-dos-duAdXtCg

Revision History

• Version	Description	Section	Status	Date
  1.0	Initial public release.	—	Final	2026-MAR-25

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