CVE-2017-12238: Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches VPLS Denial-of-Service Vulnerability

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Name

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches VPLS Denial-of-Service Vulnerability

Vendor

Cisco

Product

Catalyst 6800 Series Switches

Added to the catalog

2022-03-03

Due date for US federal agencies

2022-03-24

Weaknesses

CWE-399

Catalog version

2026.10.30

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service.

Required action (CISA)

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Ransomware use: CISA does not mark known use of this vulnerability in ransomware campaigns.

Links in CISA's notes

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12238

Read on 2026-11-02T23:39:54.475Z under licence cisa-kev-cc0@b0067899 from https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

NVD analysis

Status

Analyzed

Published

2017-09-29T01:34:48.997

Last modified

2026-06-17T01:02:56.937

Weaknesses

CWE-399, NVD-CWE-noinfo

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.4 for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a memory management issue in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a large number of VPLS-generated MAC entries in the MAC address table of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches that are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS Software and have a Cisco C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card in use with Supervisor Engine 6T. To be vulnerable, the device must also be configured with VPLS and the C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card needs to be the core-facing MPLS interfaces. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCva61927.

References

• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101040 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039453 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vpls (Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101040 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039453 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vpls (Vendor Advisory)
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-12238 (US Government Resource)

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Read on 2026-11-02T23:41:35.381Z under licence nvd-api-terms-of-use@ff2a5288 from https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2017-12238

CVE record

Assigner

cisco

State

PUBLISHED

Published

2017-09-28T07:00:00.000Z

Updated

2026-01-12T21:46:19.716Z

Problem types

CWE-399

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.4 for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a memory management issue in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a large number of VPLS-generated MAC entries in the MAC address table of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches that are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS Software and have a Cisco C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card in use with Supervisor Engine 6T. To be vulnerable, the device must also be configured with VPLS and the C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card needs to be the core-facing MPLS interfaces. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCva61927.

References

• 1039453
• 101040
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vpls

Read on 2026-11-03T00:34:55.169Z under licence cve-terms-of-use@81bfa2f3 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/main/cves/2017/12xxx/CVE-2017-12238.json