Overview
A denial-of-service vulnerability exists in Cisco's Internetwork Operating System (IOS). This vulnerability may allow remote attackers to conduct denial-of-service attacks on an affected device.
Description
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) provides a means for distributing configuration information to hosts on a TCP/IP network.The Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) implementation of DHCP contains a vulnerability that allows malformed DHCP packets to cause an affected device to stop processing incoming network traffic. Cisco devices place incoming DHCP packets into an input queue so that they can be processed. When an affected Cisco device encounters certain malformed DHCP packets that are undeliverable, it may allow these packets to remain in the queue. When the number of packets in the queue are equal to or greater than the size of the queue, the device will stop accepting traffic on that interface. Such packets can be sent by an unauthenticated remote attacker and may result in a denial-of-service condition. |
Impact
By sending a specially crafted DHCP packet to an affected device, a remote, unauthenticated attacker could cause the device to stop processing incoming network traffic. Repeated exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to a sustained denial-of-service condition. In order to regain functionality, the device must be rebooted to clear the input queue on the interface. |
Solution
Apply a patch |
|
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Temporal | ||
| Environmental |
References
Acknowledgements
This vulnerability was reported by the Cisco Systems Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT).
This document was written by Damon Morda.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | None |
| Severity Metric: | 55.13 |
| Date Public: | 2004-11-10 |
| Date First Published: | 2004-11-10 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2004-11-11 20:04 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 16 |