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iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2007-5381

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2007-10-12
No fix yet
No fix has been published. The vendor has not shipped a fixed release or patch. You remain exposed.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Stack-based buffer overflow in the Line Printer Daemon (LPD) in Cisco IOS before 12.2(18)SXF11, 12.4(16a), and 12.4(2)T6 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by setting a long hostname on the target system, then causing an error message to be printed, as demonstrated by a telnet session to the LPD from a source port other than 515.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
iOSOperating system
Affected:= 10.3= 10.3\(3.3\)= 10.3\(3.4\)= 10.3\(4.2\)= 10.3\(4.3\)= 10.3\(16\)= 10.3\(19a\)= 11= 11.0= 11.0\(12\)= 11.0\(17\)= 11.0\(17\)bt

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Recommended fix High confidence

Cisco IOS 12.2(18)SXF11, 12.4(16a), or 12.4(2)T6 or later (migrate to more recent stable release if possible)

  1. 1. Identify the current Cisco IOS version running on affected devices using 'show version' command
  2. 2. Determine if the LPD (Line Printer Daemon) feature is enabled on the device using 'show running-config | include lpd' or checking the configuration
  3. 3. If LPD is enabled and the version is before 12.2(18)SXF11, 12.4(16a), or 12.4(2)T6, plan for an upgrade
  4. 4. Download the appropriate fixed IOS image from Cisco's software download center (requires valid service contract)
  5. 5. Upload the new IOS image to the device using TFTP, FTP, or SCP
  6. 6. Configure the boot system to use the new image: 'boot system flash:<new_image_name>'
  7. 7. Reload the device to apply the new IOS version
  8. 8. After reboot, verify the new version using 'show version' and confirm it is 12.2(18)SXF11, 12.4(16a), or 12.4(2)T6 or later
Caveat Upgrading from very old IOS versions (pre-12.2) may cause compatibility issues with legacy configurations, features, or hardware support; thoroughly test in a lab environment before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

No vendor fix exists iOS has not published a patch for this.

There is no version to upgrade to and no patch to apply. Every affected install stays exposed until the vendor ships a fix — or somebody else builds one.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-5381 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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