# CVE-2017-12278: Denial of service in Cisco Wireless LAN Controller

> An authenticated remote attacker can cause a Cisco Wireless LAN Controller to restart by repeatedly polling specific MIBs, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Nov 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h92p-pf33-v4vm

## What is CVE-2017-12278?

CVE-2017-12278 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software, published on 2 Nov 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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.

Weakness: CWE-772 (Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime), CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-12278?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-12278?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-12278 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-12278 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software

- [CVE-2007-2036](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-2036/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2016-1363](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1363/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2015-6314](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6314/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2010-2842](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-2842/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2010-2843](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-2843/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-12278 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-12278 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Wireless Lan Controller Software, published on 2 Nov 2017. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Wireless Lan Controller 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-2017-12278/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12278/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-12278
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12278
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-12278

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12278/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.