# CVE-2017-12246: Denial of service in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software

> Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause Cisco ASA devices to reload via crafted HTTP requests, resulting in a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Oct 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jx9p-773v-m536

## What is CVE-2017-12246?

CVE-2017-12246 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 5 Oct 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the implementation of the direct authentication feature in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of the HTTP header. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to the local IP address of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload. This vulnerability affects Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software that is running on the following Cisco products: ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances, ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls, ASA Services Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers, ASA 1000V Cloud Firewall, Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv), Firepower 4110 Security Appliance, Firepower 9300 ASA Security Module, ISA 3000 Industrial Security Appliance. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvd59063.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-12246?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-12246?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-12246 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-12246 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12246 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software

- [CVE-2025-20333](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20333/): Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Buffer Overflow (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-6366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6366/): Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SNMP Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20349](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20349/): Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Heap Inspection (high 8.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-20353](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20353/): Cisco ASA and FTD Denial of Service (high 8.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-6367](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6367/): Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) CLI Remote Code Execution (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-12246 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-12246 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 5 Oct 2017. 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-2017-12246 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software. 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-2017-12246/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12246/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-12246
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12246
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-12246

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12246/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.