Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2017-12237

Cisco IOS and IOS XE Denial of Service

Cisco IOS and IOS XE · Cisco IOS and IOS XE

Watch CVE-2017-12237 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.5 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
7.1%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2017-12237 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Cisco IOS and IOS XE. A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) module of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.6 and Cisco IOS XE 3.5 through 16.5...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Cisco IOS and IOS XE cisco ios and ios xe.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Cisco IOS and IOS XE Denial of Service

A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) module of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.6 and Cisco IOS XE 3.5 through 16.5 could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, traceback messages, or a reload of an affected device that leads to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to how an affected device processes certain IKEv2 packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specific IKEv2 packets to an affected device to be processed. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause high CPU utilization, traceback messages, or a reload of the affected device that leads to a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco devices that have the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) enabled.

Although only IKEv2 packets can be used to trigger this vulnerability, devices that are running Cisco IOS Software or Cisco IOS XE Software are vulnerable when ISAKMP is enabled. A device does not need to be configured with any IKEv2-specific features to be vulnerable. Many features use IKEv2, including different types of VPNs such as the following: LAN-to-LAN VPN; Remote-access VPN, excluding SSL VPN; Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN); and FlexVPN. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc41277.

n/a Affected
Cisco IOS and IOS XE
Cisco IOS and IOS XE
Published
28 Sep 2017
Exploitation Reported
03 Mar 2022
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa ios windows edge

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Mar 2022

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2022-03-03 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.5 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS

7.1%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Resource Management Errors CWE-399

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 7.5 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v2.0 7.8 High

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  2. 07:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  3. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2017-12237

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2017-12237",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.0707,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}