# CVE-2016-9221: Denial of service in Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause authentication failures in Cisco Mobility Express Access Points configured in local mode at 40 MHz.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/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:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 26 Jan 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h84g-xq42-7q7f

## What is CVE-2016-9221?

CVE-2016-9221 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points, published on 26 Jan 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Denial of Service Vulnerability in 802.11 ingress connection authentication handling for the Cisco Mobility Express 2800 and 3800 Access Points (APs) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause authentication to fail. Affected Products: This vulnerability affects Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points when configured in local mode in 40 MHz. More Information: CSCvb33575. Known Affected Releases: 8.2(121.12) 8.4(1.82). Known Fixed Releases: 8.2(131.2) 8.2(131.3) 8.2(131.4) 8.2(141.0) 8.3(104.53) 8.3(104.54) 8.4(1.80) 8.4(1.85).

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9221?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Aironet Access Point Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-9221?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-9221 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-9221 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9221 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points

- [CVE-2017-3831](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-3831/): Auth bypass in Cisco Mobility Express 1800 Access Point Series (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-20622](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20622/): Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller with Catalyst Access Points IP Flood Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2018-0234](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0234/): Denial of service in Cisco Aironet 1810, 1830, and 1850 Series Access Points (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2016-1419](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1419/): Denial of service in n/a (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2016-6362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6362/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-9221 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-9221 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points, published on 26 Jan 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9221 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Mobility Express 2800 Series and 3800 Series Access Points. 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-2016-9221/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9221/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9221
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9221
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-9221

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9221/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.