RouterosOperating system · Mikrotik

CVE-2020-20217

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-07-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.47 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Mikrotik RouterOs before 6.47 (stable tree) suffers from an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the /nova/bin/route process. An authenticated remote attacker can cause a Denial of Service due to overloading the systems CPU.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Mikrotik RouterOS versions before 6.47 contain an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the /nova/bin/route process. An authenticated remote attacker can exploit this to cause excessive CPU consumption, resulting in Denial of Service.

MitigationUpgrade Mikrotik RouterOS to version 6.47 or later. Additionally, restrict management access to trusted users and networks to reduce the attack surface.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
RouterosOperating system
Affected:< 6.47

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check RouterOS version
    Access RouterOS CLI via SSH, Winbox terminal, or WebFig console and run the command to display system resource information or package details. Look for the version number in the output.
    Affected if The displayed version is lower than 6.47 (for example, 6.46.x, 6.45.x, or earlier)
  2. Confirm authenticated access capability
    Verify that remote management access (SSH, Winbox, WebFig, or API) is enabled and accessible from untrusted networks.
    Affected if Remote management services are exposed to the internet or untrusted users have credentials to authenticate to the router
  3. Identify vulnerable process
    Review running processes or consult RouterOS process documentation to confirm the /nova/bin/route process is present.
    Affected if The /nova/bin/route process is running on the device (this process handles routing operations in RouterOS)

The environment is affected if the installed RouterOS version is below 6.47 and the device is accessible to authenticated remote attackers who can trigger excessive CPU consumption in the routing subsystem.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.47 or later
Fixed in 6.47
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Mikrotik RouterOS to version 6.47 or later. Additionally, restrict management access to trusted users and networks to reduce the attack surface.

Fix this in Routeros Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,770
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,832.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-20217 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-20217 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data