# CVE-2018-15373: Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by exhausting memory through high-rate Cisco Discovery Protocol packets.

- **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:** 5 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 26 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jwv5-rv9v-wpxj

## What is CVE-2018-15373?

CVE-2018-15373 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 5 Oct 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 implementation of Cisco Discovery Protocol functionality in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to exhaust memory on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to improper memory handling by the affected software when the software processes high rates of Cisco Discovery Protocol packets that are sent to a device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of Cisco Discovery Protocol packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust memory on the affected device, resulting in a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-15373?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Cisco Ios, Cisco Ios Xe.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-15373?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-15373 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-15373 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15373 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios

- [CVE-2017-12240](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12240/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software DHCP Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-3881](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-3881/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0167](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0167/): Cisco IOS, XR, and XE Software Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6736](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6736/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-6737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6737/): Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-15373 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-15373 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 5 Oct 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-2018-15373 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios. 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-2018-15373/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15373/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-15373
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15373
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-15373

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15373/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.