# CVE-2018-0165: Denial of service in Cisco IOS XE

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by exhausting buffers via IGMP packets on Cisco IOS XE devices with IP multicast routing enabled.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/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:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Mar 2018
- **Updated:** 2 Dec 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4xw4-mm85-x43q

## What is CVE-2018-0165?

CVE-2018-0165 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 28 Mar 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet-processing functionality of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to exhaust buffers on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition, aka a Memory Leak. The vulnerability is due to the affected software insufficiently processing IGMP Membership Query packets that are sent to an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large number of IGMP Membership Query packets, which contain certain values, to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust buffers on the affected device, resulting in a DoS condition that requires the device to be reloaded manually. This vulnerability affects: Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches with Supervisor Engine 8-E, if they are running Cisco IOS XE Software Release 3.x.x.E and IP multicast routing is configured; Cisco devices that are running Cisco IOS XE Software Release 16.x, if IP multicast routing is configured. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCuw09295, CSCve94496.

Weakness: CWE-772 (Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-0165?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Ios Xe.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-0165?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-0165 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-0165 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-0165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios Xe

- [CVE-2023-20198](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20198/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0151](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0151/): Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software Quality of Service Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-20273](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20273/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection (high 7.2, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-20188](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20188/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco IOS XE Software (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-34770](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34770/): Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers CAPWAP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-0165 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-0165 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 28 Mar 2018. 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-2018-0165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios Xe. 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-2018-0165/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0165/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-0165
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-0165
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-0165

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0165/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.