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CVE-2017-12238

KEVCisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches VPLS Denial-of-Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service.

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.4 for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a memory management issue in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a large number of VPLS-generated MAC entries in the MAC address table of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches that are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS Software and have a Cisco C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card in use with Supervisor Engine 6T. To be vulnerable, the device must also be configured with VPLS and the C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card needs to be the core-facing MPLS interfaces. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCva61927.

CVSS 3.1 vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
PublishedSep 29, 2017
Last modifiedJun 17, 2026
Added to KEVMar 3, 2022
Remediation dueMar 24, 2022
    63
    Risk assessment · High

    Actively exploited. Patch immediately.

    Exploitation
    Confirmed in the wild (CISA KEV)
    Federal remediation deadline
    Overdue by 1678 days
    CVSS
    6.5 MEDIUM
    EPSS (30-day exploit probability)
    2.0% · top 19% of all CVEs
    Weakness
    CWE-399
    Preconditions
    No privileges and no user interaction
    1. 1.Apply updates per vendor instructions.
    2. 2.Treat as emergency change: patch or isolate internet-facing instances first.
    3. 3.Hunt for compromise: review logs for the disclosure window, not just from the patch date.

    Assessment is derived automatically from the live signals above; verify against your own asset inventory.