Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2018-0151 is a critical-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked in the top 4% 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 exists in the quality of service (QoS) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software, tracked as Cisco Bug ID CSCvf73881. It stems from incorrect bounds checking on values in packets sent to UDP port 18999, which can trigger a buffer overflow condition (CWE-119) when the packets are processed by an affected device. The issue does not affect transit traffic. It carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the flaw by sending crafted packets to an exposed device. Successful exploitation may permit arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges or force a device reload, resulting in a temporary denial of service.
The referenced Cisco Security Advisory cisco-sa-20180328-qos, along with related notices from ICS-CERT and security trackers, provides mitigation guidance and patch availability for affected releases. No information on observed in-the-wild exploitation is supplied in the source data.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-0974
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability in the quality of service (QoS) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition or execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The…
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vulnerability is due to incorrect bounds checking of certain values in packets that are destined for UDP port 18999 of an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious packets to an affected device. When the packets are processed, an exploitable buffer overflow condition may occur. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device with elevated privileges. The attacker could also leverage this vulnerability to cause the device to reload, causing a temporary DoS condition while the device is reloading. The malicious packets must be destined to and processed by an affected device. Traffic transiting a device will not trigger the vulnerability. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvf73881.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 March 2022
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V17.3.2
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.
Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.
Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.
Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.
Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.
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.
Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.
Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.
Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.
Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.
Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.
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.
Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.
Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.
Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.
Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.