Cisco IOS XE Cisco Discovery Protocol Packet Processing Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches running Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device.

The vulnerability is due to improper processing of valid crafted Cisco Discovery Protocol packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted Cisco Discovery Protocol packets to be processed by an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the software to stop functioning properly, resulting in a DoS condition on the affected device.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability and released software updates.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker may need to acquire additional information about the targeted device, such as whether the device is configured to process Cisco Discovery Protocol packets. A device configured to process these packets is required for a successful exploit.

Cisco indicates through the CVSS score that functional exploit code exists; however, the code is not known to be publicly available.