Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2017-12278


A vulnerability in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem of Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to restart, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a memory leak that occurs on an affected device after the device fails to deallocate a buffer that is used when certain MIBs are polled. An attacker who knows the SNMP Version 2 SNMP Read string or has valid SNMP Version 3 credentials for an affected device could repeatedly poll the affected MIB object IDs (OIDs) and consume available memory on the device. When memory is sufficiently depleted on the device, the device will restart, resulting in a DoS condition. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc71674.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.3, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network but requires specific conditions to be met without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from cisco, from cisco organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.


Published

2017-11-02T16:29:00.490

Last Modified

2025-04-20T01:37:25.860

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 6.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:A/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

  • Access Vector: ADJACENT_NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: SINGLE
  • Confidentiality Impact: NONE
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: COMPLETE
Exploitability Score

4.4

Impact Score

6.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-119
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-772

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Operating System cisco wireless_lan_controller_software - Yes
Hardware cisco wireless_lan_controller - No

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For cisco's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.