# CVE-2017-6161: Denial of service in BIG-IP LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, Edge Gateway, GTM, Link Controller, PEM, WebAccelerator

> Attackers on adjacent networks can bypass TLS protections in ConfigSync to cause denial of service via resource exhaustion in F5 BIG-IP devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** 27 Oct 2017
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-r2cf-532c-v5v7

## What is CVE-2017-6161?

CVE-2017-6161 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, published on 27 Oct 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In F5 BIG-IP LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, Edge Gateway, GTM, Link Controller, PEM, WebAccelerator software version 12.0.0 - 12.1.2, 11.6.0 - 11.6.1, 11.4.0 - 11.5.4, 11.2.1, when ConfigSync is configured, attackers on adjacent networks may be able to bypass the TLS protections usually used to encrypted and authenticate connections to mcpd. This vulnerability may allow remote attackers to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) attack via resource exhaustion.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-6161?

It affects 11 products.


Products: F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager, F5 Big-Ip Domain Name System, F5 Big-Ip Edge Gateway, F5 Big-Ip Global Traffic Manager, F5 Big-Ip Link Controller, F5 Big-Ip Local Traffic Manager, F5 Big-Ip Policy Enforcement Manager, F5 Big-Ip Webaccelerator.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-6161?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-6161 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-6161 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6161 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager

- [CVE-2023-46747](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46747/): F5 BIG-IP Configuration Utility Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-1388](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-1388/): F5 BIG-IP Missing Authentication (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-22986](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-22986/): F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ Centralized Management iControl REST Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-22991](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-22991/): F5 BIG-IP Traffic Management Microkernel Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-5902](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5902/): F5 BIG-IP Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI) Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-6161 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-6161 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, published on 27 Oct 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-2017-6161 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager. 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-2017-6161/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6161/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-6161
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-6161
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-6161

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6161/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.