A vulnerability in the DHCPv6 feature of the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Fabric Switches in Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Mode could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the device to run low on system memory, which could result in a Denial of Service (DoS) condition on an affected system. The vulnerability is due to improper memory management when DHCPv6 packets are received on an interface of the targeted device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high number of malicious DHCPv6 packets to be processed by an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the system to run low on memory, which could cause an eventual reboot of an affected device. The vulnerability only applies to IPv6 protocol packets and not for IPv4 protocol packets. This vulnerability affects Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Fabric Switches in ACI Mode running software version 13.0(1k). The vulnerability can only be exploited when unicast routing is enabled on the Bridge Domain (BD). DHCP and DHCP relay do not have to be configured for the vulnerability to be exploited. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvg38918.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nx-os | Cisco | 13.0(1k) (including) | 13.0(1k) (including) |
Limited resources include memory, file system storage, database connection pool entries, and CPU. If an attacker can trigger the allocation of these limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the attacker could cause a denial of service that consumes all available resources. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system. There are at least three distinct scenarios which can commonly lead to resource exhaustion:
Resource exhaustion problems are often result due to an incorrect implementation of the following situations:
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.