# CVE-2016-1288: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a service outage on Cisco Web Security Appliances by sending malformed HTTPS requests, requiring an upgrade to patched AsyncOS versions.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Mar 2016
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rq33-86v9-3777

## What is CVE-2016-1288?

CVE-2016-1288 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Web Security Appliance, published on 3 Mar 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The HTTPS Proxy feature in Cisco AsyncOS before 8.5.3-051 and 9.x before 9.0.0-485 on Web Security Appliance (WSA) devices allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (service outage) by leveraging certain intranet connectivity and sending a malformed HTTPS request, aka Bug ID CSCuu24840.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-1288?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Web Security Appliance.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-1288?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-1288 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-1288 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-1288 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Web Security Appliance

- [CVE-2015-6298](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6298/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2019-1817](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1817/): Cisco Web Security Appliance Malformed Request Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2018-0410](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0410/): Denial of service in AsyncOS Software for Cisco Web Security Appliances (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2015-6292](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6292/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2015-6293](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6293/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-1288 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-1288 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Web Security Appliance, published on 3 Mar 2016. 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-2016-1288 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Web Security Appliance. 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-2016-1288/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1288/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-1288
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-1288
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-1288

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1288/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.