A vulnerability in Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series, Cisco IP Phone 7800 and 8800 Series, and Cisco Video Phone 8875 that are running Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper memory management when an affected device processes HTTP packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a continuous stream of crafted HTTP packets to the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to continuously consume memory, resulting in a DoS condition. A manual reboot of the device is required to recover from this condition. Note: For this vulnerability to be exploitable, the phone must be registered to Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and have Web Access enabled. Web Access is disabled by default.
CVE-2026-20281
Score 7.5 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-09-02. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.5; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 7.5
- EG Score
- 7.5(high)
- EG Risk
- 49(Track)EG Risk 49/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity75% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability100% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 0%
- EPSS %ILE
- 26%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
September 2, 2026
Last Modified
September 2, 2026
Advisory Details (1)
Auto-updated Sep 2, 2026Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series, IP Phone 7800 and 8800 Series, and Video Phone 8875 with SIP Software Denial of Service Vulnerability
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-phone-dos-txMYNRzvVendor Advisories for CVE-2026-20281(2)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- GHSA-998p-wvfv-584pGitHub Security AdvisoriesHigh
A vulnerability in Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series, Cisco IP Phone 7800 and 8800 Series, and Cisco...
- cisco-sa-phone-dos-txMYNRzvCisco PSIRT openVulnHigh
Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series, IP Phone 7800 and 8800 Series, and Video Phone 8875 with SIP Software Denial of Service Vulnerability
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 26× in last 7d / 38× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-09-11 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 14:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-11 14:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-11 09:36 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 02:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-10 13:23 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-10 13:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-10 09:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-10 00:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-09 11:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-08 23:11 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-08 23:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-08 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-08 03:53 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-08 03:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-07 15:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-07 02:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-07 02:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-06 13:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-06 00:58 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-06 00:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-05 12:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-04 23:26 UTCEG score recompute
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- 2026-09-04 23:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-04 09:45 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-04 09:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-03 21:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-03 08:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-02 19:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-02 18:36 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-02 18:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-02 18:05 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-02 17:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-02 16:33 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-02 16:31 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-401
- CVE-2018-0158NVD 8.6EG 9.0 KEVEPSS p94CRITICAL
- CVE-2019-17340EG 8.8HIGH
- CVE-2019-1708EG 8.6HIGH
- CVE-2018-15377EG 8.6HIGH
- CVE-2016-6304NVD 7.5EG 8.4EPSS p99HIGH
- CVE-2019-10547EG 7.8HIGH
- CVE-2007-2274EG 7.8EPSS p95HIGH
- CVE-2015-8567EG 7.7EPSS p92HIGH
- CVE-2016-4232NVD 7.5EG 7.7EPSS p98HIGH
- CVE-2018-17240EG 7.5HIGH
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-20281?
When was CVE-2026-20281 disclosed?
Is CVE-2026-20281 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-20281?
How do I remediate CVE-2026-20281?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2026-20281
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2026-20281?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.