# CVE-2018-0273: Denial of service in Cisco StarOS IPsec Manager

> Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause a denial of service by sending crafted IKEv2 messages to Cisco StarOS IPsec Manager, terminating active VPN tunnels.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **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-vx8f-xw5m-52fj

## What is CVE-2018-0273?

CVE-2018-0273 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco StarOS IPsec Manager, 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 IPsec Manager of Cisco StarOS for Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 5000 Series Routers and Virtualized Packet Core (VPC) System Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to terminate all active IPsec VPN tunnels and prevent new tunnels from being established, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to improper processing of corrupted Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted IKEv2 messages toward an affected router. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the ipsecmgr service to reload. A reload of this service could cause all IPsec VPN tunnels to be terminated and prevent new tunnels from being established until the service has restarted, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects the following Cisco products when they are running Cisco StarOS: Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 5000 Series Routers, Virtualized Packet Core (VPC) System Software. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve29605.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-0273?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Staros.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-0273?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-0273 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-0273 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-0273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco StarOS IPsec Manager

- [CVE-2023-20046](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20046/): Auth bypass in Cisco ASR 5000 Series Software (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-1869](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1869/): Cisco StarOS Denial of Service Vulnerability (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2018-0369](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0369/): Denial of service in Cisco StarOS unknown (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2017-6707](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6707/): Command injection in Cisco StarOS (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2021-1539](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1539/): Cisco ASR 5000 Series Software Authorization Bypass Vulnerabilities (high 8.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-0273 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-0273 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco StarOS IPsec Manager, 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-2018-0273 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco StarOS IPsec 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-2018-0273/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0273/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-0273
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-0273
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-0273

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0273/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.