Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software VPN System Logging Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the VPN System Logging functionality for Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a memory leak that can deplete system memory over time, which can cause unexpected system behaviors or device crashes.

The vulnerability is due to the system memory not being properly freed for a VPN System Logging event generated when a VPN session is created or deleted. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by repeatedly creating or deleting a VPN tunnel connection, which could leak a small amount of system memory for each logging event. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause system memory depletion, which can lead to a systemwide denial of service (DoS) condition. The attacker does not have any control of whether VPN System Logging is configured or not on the device, but it is enabled by default.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-dos-Rdpe34sd8 [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-dos-Rdpe34sd8”]

This advisory is part of the May 2020 Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication, which includes 12 Cisco Security Advisories that describe 12 vulnerabilities. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: May 2020 Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-73830”].