iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2008-4128

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-09-18
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
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in the HTTP Administration component in Cisco IOS 12.4 on the 871 Integrated Services Router allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via (1) a certain "show privilege" command to the /level/15/exec/- URI, and (2) a certain "alias exec" command to the /level/15/exec/-/configure/http URI. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.

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-352

The application can't tell whether a state-changing request was genuinely intended by the user, so an attacker can trick a logged-in victim's browser into making it. That can transfer funds, change settings, or create accounts silently. Remediation is anti-CSRF tokens — or equivalent same-site protections — on every state-changing request.

General guidance for the cross-site request forgery (csrf) 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:= 12.4

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 Moderate confidence

Later IOS 12.4 release with security fixes or migrate to IOS 15.x/16.x if hardware supports (verify with Cisco IOS upgrade planner)

  1. 1. Identify the exact Cisco IOS 12.4 subversion currently running on the Cisco 871 ISR using 'show version' command
  2. 2. Access Cisco Software Checker (tools.cisco.com/security_center) to check for security advisories affecting IOS 12.4
  3. 3. If a later IOS 12.4 release with security fixes is available from Cisco, download it from Cisco.com (requires valid service contract)
  4. 4. Upload the new IOS image to the router using 'copy tftp flash' or similar method
  5. 5. Configure the router to boot with the new image using 'boot system flash:<new_image_name>'
  6. 6. Reload the router with 'reload' command
  7. 7. Verify the new IOS version is running with 'show version'
  8. 8. As an additional mitigation, disable HTTP administration and use HTTPS or restrict management to out-of-band interfaces using 'no ip http server' or 'ip http secure-server' with access lists
Caveat Verify hardware compatibility with newer IOS versions; some 12.4 configurations may need adjustment for 15.x/16.x syntax; ensure valid Cisco service contract for access to images

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-2008-4128 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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