Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2018-0161

Cisco IOS Denial of Service

Cisco IOS · Cisco IOS

Watch CVE-2018-0161 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 6.3 · Medium
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
4.1%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2018-0161 is a vulnerability affecting Cisco IOS. A vulnerability in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software running on certain models of Cisco Catalyst Switches could allow...

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 cisco ios.

What should we do?

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

Overview

Cisco IOS Denial of Service

A vulnerability in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software running on certain models of Cisco Catalyst Switches could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition, aka a GET MIB Object ID Denial of Service Vulnerability. The vulnerability is due to a condition that could occur when the affected software processes an SNMP read request that contains a request for the ciscoFlashMIB object ID (OID). An attacker could trigger this vulnerability by issuing an SNMP GET request for the ciscoFlashMIB OID on an affected device.

A successful exploit could cause the affected device to restart due to a SYS-3-CPUHOG. This vulnerability affects the following Cisco devices if they are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS Software and are configured to use SNMP Version 2 (SNMPv2) or SNMP Version 3 (SNMPv3): Cisco Catalyst 2960-L Series Switches, Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches 8P, Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches 8U. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvd89541.

n/a Affected
Cisco IOS
Cisco IOS
Published
28 Mar 2018
Exploitation Reported
03 Mar 2022
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

ios edge cisa windows

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

6.3 Medium

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

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

EPSS

4.1%

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 6.3 Medium

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

CVSS v2.0 6.3 Medium

AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/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. 22:00 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-2018-0161

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2018-0161",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 6.3,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.04116,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}