CVE-2017-12238
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/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H- securityfocus.com/bid/101040Broken LinkThird Party Advisory
- securitytracker.com/id/1039453Broken LinkThird Party Advisory
- tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vplsVendor Advisory
- cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-12238US Government Resource
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.Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- 2.Treat as emergency change: patch or isolate internet-facing instances first.
- 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.