What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2017-12237: Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Internet Key Exchange Denial-of-Service Vulnerability
- Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2022-03-03
- EPSS: 7.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2017-09-29 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-399
Description
A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) module of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.6 and Cisco IOS XE 3.5 through 16.5 could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, traceback messages, or a reload of an affected device that leads to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to how an affected device processes certain IKEv2 packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specific IKEv2 packets to an affected device to be processed. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause high CPU utilization, traceback messages, or a reload of the affected device that leads to a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco devices that have the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) enabled. Although only IKEv2 packets can be used to trigger this vulnerability, devices that are running Cisco IOS Software or Cisco IOS XE Software are vulnerable when ISAKMP is enabled. A device does not need to be configured with any IKEv2-specific features to be vulnerable. Many features use IKEv2, including different types of VPNs such as the following: LAN-to-LAN VPN; Remote-access VPN, excluding SSL VPN; Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN); and FlexVPN. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc41277.
Affected products
- Cisco IOS: from 15.0 through 15.6
- Cisco IOS XE: from 3.5.0e through 16.5
References
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101037
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039460
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-ike
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101037
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039460
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-ike
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-12237
Get alerted when CVE-2017-12237 or the next vulnerability affects your stack