# CVE-2018-0378: Denial of service in Cisco NX-OS Software for Nexus 6000 Series

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service on Cisco Nexus switches by flooding Precision Time Protocol traffic, requiring PTP to be enabled.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/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:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 26 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cqfr-gw47-8rvr

## What is CVE-2018-0378?

CVE-2018-0378 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 17 Oct 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) feature of Cisco Nexus 5500, 5600, and 6000 Series Switches running Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to a lack of protection against PTP frame flood attacks. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending large streams of malicious IPv4 or IPv6 PTP traffic to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition, impacting the traffic passing through the device.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-0378?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Nx-Os.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-0378?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-0378 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-0378 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-0378 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Nx-Os

- [CVE-2024-20399](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20399/): Cisco NX-OS Command Injection (medium 6.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-1361](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-1361/): Cisco NX-OS Software Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Actions Vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-0301](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0301/): Memory corruption in Cisco NX-OS unknown (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-1453](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1453/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-1341](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1341/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-0378 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-0378 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 17 Oct 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-2018-0378 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Nx-Os. 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-2018-0378/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0378/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-0378
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-0378
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-0378

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0378/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.