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Actively exploited · Published Mar 28, 2018 · Assigned by cisco

CVE-2018-0171

High 7.5 Exploited

In plain English

A high-severity improper input validation in Cisco IOS and IOS XE. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on November 3, 2021). The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 99.5% (higher than 99.9% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Nuclei, public proof-of-concept code. Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.5High
Exploit odds (30 days)99.5%top 0.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildYesCISA KEV since Nov 3, 2021
Attack tooling2Nuclei, Public PoC

CISA guidance

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Federal agencies must remediate by May 3, 2022.

Official description

A vulnerability in the Smart Install feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to trigger a reload of an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition, or to execute arbitrary code on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of packet data. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted Smart Install message to an affected device on TCP port 4786. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a buffer overflow on the affected device, which could have the following impacts: Triggering a reload of the device, Allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device, Causing an indefinite loop on the affected device that triggers a watchdog crash. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvg76186.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
n/a Cisco IOS and IOS XE Cisco IOS and IOS XE

Weakness: CWE-20 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References