Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2018-0147 is a critical-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Cisco Secure Access Control System. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked in the top 3% 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.
A vulnerability in Java deserialization affects Cisco Secure Access Control System (ACS) versions prior to 5.8 patch 9. The issue stems from insecure handling of user-supplied serialized objects, tracked under Cisco Bug ID CSCvh25988 and assigned CWE-20 and CWE-502. It carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, reflecting network-accessible attack complexity with no required credentials or user interaction.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the flaw by sending a crafted serialized Java object to the affected ACS instance. Successful exploitation grants the ability to execute arbitrary commands on the device with root privileges.
The referenced Cisco Security Advisory at https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20180307-acs2 addresses the issue and identifies the availability of release 5.8 patch 9 as the corrective update. Additional details appear in the associated SecurityFocus and SecurityTracker entries.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-0970
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability in Java deserialization used by Cisco Secure Access Control System (ACS) prior to release 5.8 patch 9 could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insecure deserialization…
more
of user-supplied content by the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted serialized Java object. An exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the device with root privileges. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvh25988.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 25 March 2022
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
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.
Security testing and evaluation at multiple SDLC stages directly detects missing or flawed input validation, with the required remediation process ensuring fixes are applied.
Directly implements checks on information inputs to reject invalid data before processing.
Penetration testing supplies malicious serialized objects, detecting unsafe deserialization and supporting corrective actions.
Security testing and developer training directly verify and enforce proper input validation, reducing exploitability of injection and malformed-data weaknesses.
Untrusted serialized data can be deserialized and observed inside the chamber, blocking gadget-chain exploitation outside the sandbox.
Identifies and blocks malicious code introduced through deserialization of untrusted data at system boundaries.
Integrity verification of serialized information can detect tampering before deserialization occurs.
Spam protection mechanisms perform filtering and detection on inbound/outbound messages, directly compensating for missing or weak input validation of unsolicited content.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
PR.PS-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.
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.
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-20, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.