# CVE-2011-3297: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the Cisco Firewall Services Module by flooding authentication requests when specific authentication configurations are enabled.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Oct 2011
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-q23r-7gwj-52ch

## What is CVE-2011-3297?

CVE-2011-3297 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 6 Oct 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Cisco Firewall Services Module (aka FWSM) 3.1 before 3.1(21), 3.2 before 3.2(22), 4.0 before 4.0(16), and 4.1 before 4.1(7), when certain authentication configurations are used, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (module crash) by making many authentication requests for network access, aka Bug ID CSCtn15697.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-3297?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Cisco Catalyst 6500, Cisco Catalyst 7600, Cisco Firewall Services Module Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-3297?

No fix has been published for CVE-2011-3297 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2011-3297 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3297 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2011-3296](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3296/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2014-2124](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-2124/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2007-5134](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-5134/): Misconfiguration in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2003-1001](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-1001/): Memory corruption in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2003-1002](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-1002/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 5.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-3297 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-3297 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 6 Oct 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3297 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3297/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3297/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-3297
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3297
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-3297

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3297/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.