# CVE-2017-6166: Denial of service in BIG-IP LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, Link Controller, PEM, and WebSafe

> Attackers can crash the Traffic Management Microkernel by sending fragmented packets to a virtual server with a FastL4 profile, causing service disruption.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 22 Nov 2017
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j35v-h5m8-p59m

## What is CVE-2017-6166?

CVE-2017-6166 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Analytics, published on 22 Nov 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In BIG-IP LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, Link Controller, PEM, and WebSafe software 12.0.0 to 12.1.1, in some cases the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) may crash when processing fragmented packets. This vulnerability affects TMM through a virtual server configured with a FastL4 profile. Traffic processing is disrupted while TMM restarts. If the affected BIG-IP system is configured as part of a device group, it will trigger a failover to the peer device.

Weakness: CWE-415 (Double Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-6166?

It affects 11 products.


Products: F5 Big-Ip Afm, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Apm, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Asm, F5 Big-Ip Dns, F5 Big-Ip Link Controller, F5 Big-Ip Ltm, F5 Big-Ip Pem, F5 F5 Websafe, F5 Linerate.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-6166?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-6166 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-6166 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6166 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in F5 Big-Ip Analytics

- [CVE-2017-6168](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6168/): Weak cryptography in n/a (high 7.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-6166 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-6166 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Analytics, published on 22 Nov 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-2017-6166 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: F5 Big-Ip Analytics. 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-2017-6166/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6166/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-6166
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-6166
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-6166

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6166/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.