# CVE-2019-1617: Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Standalone NX-OS Mode Fibre Channel over Ethernet NPV Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service on Cisco Nexus switches by sending crafted FCoE frames when the NPV feature is uninstalled.

- **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:** 11 Mar 2019
- **Updated:** 21 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x732-f4pc-ff5p

## What is CVE-2019-1617?

CVE-2019-1617 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 11 Mar 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) N-port Virtualization (NPV) protocol implementation in Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an incorrect processing of FCoE packets when the fcoe-npv feature is uninstalled. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a stream of FCoE frames from an adjacent host to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause packet amplification to occur, resulting in the saturation of interfaces and a DoS condition. Nexus 9000 Series Switches in Standalone NX-OS Mode are affected running software versions prior to 7.0(3)I7(5) and 9.2(2).

Weakness: CWE-913 (Improper Control of Dynamically-Managed Code Resources)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-1617?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Nx-Os.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-1617?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-1617 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-1617 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-1617 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-2019-1617 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-1617 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os, published on 11 Mar 2019. 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-2019-1617 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-2019-1617/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1617/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-1617
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-1617
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-1617

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1617/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.