Security Resilience

CVE-2004-1464

DoS in Cisco Ios ≤ 12.2\(15\)zj3

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedDoS
Published
31 December 2004
Modified
16 April 2026
KEV Added
19 May 2023
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.048 92th percentile
Risk Priority 75 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2004-1464 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Cisco Ios. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Cisco IOS versions 12.2(15) and earlier are affected by a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to trigger a denial of service by sending a crafted TCP connection to the Telnet or reverse Telnet port, resulting in refused VTY virtual terminal connections. The flaw is tracked as CWE-400 and assigned a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.9 reflecting network attack vector, high complexity, and high impact to availability with no impact to confidentiality or integrity.

An unauthenticated attacker with network reachability can open a specially formed TCP session to the Telnet service and thereby exhaust connection resources, blocking subsequent legitimate administrative access via VTY lines.

Vendor and third-party advisories, including the Cisco security advisory published in August 2004, direct administrators to apply the corresponding IOS software updates that correct Telnet session handling and to restrict exposure of the service where possible through access controls.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Cisco IOS 12.2(15) and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (refused VTY (virtual terminal) connections), via a crafted TCP connection to the Telnet or reverse Telnet port.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
19 May 2023

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2018-0171Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6744Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6663Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6738Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6743Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6737Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2017-6742Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2023-20109Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV
CVE-2024-20465Same product: Cisco Ios
CVE-2017-6736Same product: Cisco Iosboth on KEV

Affected Assets

cisco
ios
≤ 12.2\(15\)zj3

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-400

Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.

addresses: CWE-400

Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.

addresses: CWE-400

Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-400

Timely maintenance support and spare parts enable rapid recovery from failures induced by uncontrolled resource consumption, shortening the impact window of denial-of-service attacks.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Pre-agreed severity-based prioritization and resource allocation during incident triage reduce the likelihood that an attacker-induced resource exhaustion will overwhelm the organization before corrective action is taken.

finds

Early notification of anomalous resource consumption or system malfunctions enables throttling or isolation before availability is lost.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Specifying log storage limits and rotation procedures reduces the risk that unbounded log growth will exhaust disk or memory resources and cause denial of service.

finds

Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.

blocks

A.8.20 implements network-level protections (firewalls, segmentation, protocol hardening, monitoring, authentication of systems/devices) that can limit abuse of a resource-consuming weakness but do not stop the weakness from being exploitable; the flaw remains present in the product and can still be triggered from an authorized or internal context.

blocks

Monitoring network service usage and applying controls to restrict access when necessary limits an attacker’s ability to consume excessive resources through unrestricted or unauthenticated service calls.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-400, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-770.

References