A vulnerability was found in Cisco NX-OS (Router Operating System) (unknown version) and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block of the component Discovery Protocol Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a input validation vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-20. The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

A vulnerability in the Cisco Discovery Protocol component of Cisco FXOS Software and Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to execute arbitrary code as root or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on the affected device. The vulnerability exists because of insufficiently validated Cisco Discovery Protocol packet headers. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted Cisco Discovery Protocol packet to a Layer 2 adjacent affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a buffer overflow that could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code as root or cause a DoS condition on the affected device. This vulnerability affects the following if configured to use Cisco Discovery Protocol: Firepower 4100 Series Next-Generation Firewalls, Firepower 9300 Security Appliance, MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches, Nexus 1000V Series Switches, Nexus 1100 Series Cloud Services Platforms, Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders, Nexus 3000 Series Switches, Nexus 3500 Platform Switches, Nexus 5500 Platform Switches, Nexus 5600 Platform Switches, Nexus 6000 Series Switches, Nexus 7000 Series Switches, Nexus 7700 Series Switches, Nexus 9000 Series Fabric Switches in Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) mode, Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode, Nexus 9500 R-Series Line Cards and Fabric Modules, UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects, UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects, UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc22202, CSCvc22205, CSCvc22208, CSCvc88078, CSCvc88150, CSCvc88159, CSCvc88162, CSCvc88167.

The bug was discovered 06/20/2018. The weakness was presented 06/21/2018 as cisco-sa-20180620-fxnxos-dos as confirmed advisory (Website). The advisory is shared for download at tools.cisco.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2018-0303 since 11/27/2017. Access to the local network is required for this attack. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 03/28/2023).

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 1 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 316281 (Cisco NX-OS Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability(cisco-sa-20180620-fxnxos-dos)).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Type

• Router Operating System

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• NX-OS

License

• commercial

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CPE 2.2info

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