# CVE-2018-0272: Denial of service in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense

> Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause denial of service by sending crafted SSL traffic, leading to high CPU utilization on Cisco Firepower devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.0/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:** 19 Apr 2018
- **Updated:** 29 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-gg84-j6g5-hr53

## What is CVE-2018-0272?

CVE-2018-0272 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense, published on 19 Apr 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Engine of Cisco Firepower System Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to improper error handling while processing SSL traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large volume of crafted SSL traffic to the vulnerable device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to degrade the device performance by triggering a persistent high CPU utilization condition. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvh89340.

Weakness: CWE-755 (Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-0272?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Firepower.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-0272?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-0272 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-0272 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-0272 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense

- [CVE-2015-6307](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6307/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2019-12696](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12696/): Cisco Firepower System Software Detection Engine RTF and RAR Malware and File Policy Bypass Vulnerabilities (medium 5.8)
- [CVE-2019-12697](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12697/): Cisco Firepower System Software Detection Engine RTF and RAR Malware and File Policy Bypass Vulnerabilities (medium 5.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-0272 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-0272 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense, published on 19 Apr 2018. 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-2018-0272 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense. 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-2018-0272/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0272/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-0272
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-0272
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-0272

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0272/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.