Cisco · Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA)
CVE-2018-0296
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Denial-of-Service Vulnerability
What it is
A vulnerability in the web interface of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. It is also possible on certain software releases that the ASA will not reload, but an attacker could view sensitive system information without authentication by using directory traversal techniques. The vulnerability is due to lack of proper input validation of the HTTP URL. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition or unauthenticated disclosure of information. This vulnerability applies to IPv4 and IPv6 HTTP traffic. This vulnerability affects Cisco ASA Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software that is running on the following Cisco products: 3000 Series Industrial Security Appliance (ISA), ASA 1000V Cloud Firewall, ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances, ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls, ASA Services Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers, Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv), Firepower 2100 Series Security Appliance, Firepower 4100 Series Security Appliance, Firepower 9300 ASA Security Module, FTD Virtual (FTDv). Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvi16029.
CISA: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) contains an improper input validation vulnerability with HTTP URLs. Exploitation could allow an attacker to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition or information disclosure.
What to do
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Deadline for US federal agencies: May 3, 2022
- Added to the CISA list
- November 3, 2021
- Published
- June 7, 2018
- Severity
- High 7.5 CVSS 3.1
- Chance of attacks in the next 30 days (EPSS)
- 99.9% in the top 0.1% of all known vulnerabilities
- Weakness
- CWE-20
- More details
- NVD · CVE.org · CISA
All references (6)
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/104612
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44956/
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1041076
- https://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/advisories/ICSA-18-184-01
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20180606-asaftd
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154017/Cisco-Adaptive-Security-Appliance-Path-Traversal.html
More exploited flaws from Cisco
| Added | Vulnerability | Product | Severity | Attack chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 12, 2024 | Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) | Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) | Medium 5.4 | 23% |
| May 24, 2022 | SNMP Buffer Overflow | Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) | High 8.8 | 88% |
| May 24, 2022 | CLI Remote Code Execution | Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) | High 7.8 | 23% |
| Oct 14, 2026 | Relative Path Traversal | Secure Email Gateway | Critical 9.8 | 2.2% |
| Sep 30, 2026 | Hex Encoding | Catalyst SD-WAN Manager | Critical 9.8 | 39% |
| Sep 16, 2026 | Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs | Identity Services Engine | Critical 10.0 | 76% |
| Sep 14, 2026 | SQL Injection | Secure Email Gateway | Critical 9.8 | 30% |
| Sep 9, 2026 | Firewall Management Center Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel | Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) and Security Cloud Control (SCC) Firewall Management | Critical 10.0 | 88% |
Sources: Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (CISA, public domain), CVE records (cve.org) and EPSS (FIRST). The chance of attacks is the EPSS estimate that someone will try to exploit the flaw in the next 30 days.