dbcve.org
Adaptive Security Appliance 5500Hardware / appliance · Cisco

CVE-2008-2734

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-09-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Memory leak in the crypto functionality in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 devices 7.2 before 7.2(4)2, 8.0 before 8.0(3)14, and 8.1 before 8.1(1)4, when configured as a clientless SSL VPN endpoint, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and VPN hang) via a crafted SSL or HTTP packet, aka Bug ID CSCso66472.

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 · high confidence

Memory leak in Cisco ASA 5500 devices when configured as clientless SSL VPN endpoint. Crafted SSL or HTTP packets trigger uncontrolled memory consumption, eventually causing VPN service hang and denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade Cisco ASA to fixed versions (7.2(4)2, 8.0(3)14, 8.1(1)4 or later). If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling clientless SSL VPN or implementing rate limiting on SSL/HTTP connections as temporary mitigation.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Adaptive Security Appliance 5500Hardware / appliance
Affected:= 8.0= 8.1

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Cisco ASA model
    Execute 'show version' or 'show hardware' command on the ASA CLI to confirm the device is an ASA 5500 series appliance
    Affected if Device model is not ASA 5500 series (not affected)
  2. Check ASA software version
    Execute 'show version' command and locate the 'Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software' version number
    Affected if Version is 8.0.x or 8.1.x (potentially affected)
  3. Verify clientless SSL VPN is enabled
    Execute 'show running-config webvpn' or 'show vpn-sessiondb webvpn' to check if clientless SSL VPN (webvpn) feature is configured and active
    Affected if Clientless SSL VPN is enabled (vulnerable to the exploit)
  4. Review SSL VPN session usage
    Execute 'show webvpn session' and monitor for unusually high session counts or memory indicators via 'show memory'
    Affected if Memory usage is abnormally high or session count exceeds expected baseline under normal operation

Device is affected if it is a Cisco ASA 5500 running software version 8.0 or 8.1 with clientless SSL VPN feature enabled, and exhibiting abnormal memory consumption or VPN service hangs.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Cisco ASA to fixed versions (7.2(4)2, 8.0(3)14, 8.1(1)4 or later). If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling clientless SSL VPN or implementing rate limiting on SSL/HTTP connections as temporary mitigation.

Fix this in Adaptive Security Appliance 5500 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,280
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,648.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-2734 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2008-2734 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data