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4400 Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance · Cisco

CVE-2009-0059

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-02-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
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
The Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC), Cisco Catalyst 6500 Wireless Services Module (WiSM), and Cisco Catalyst 3750 Integrated Wireless LAN Controller with software 4.x before 4.2.176.0 and 5.2.x before 5.2.157.0 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (device reload) via a web authentication (aka WebAuth) session that includes a malformed POST request to login.html.

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

A denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, WiSM, and Catalyst 3750 Integrated Wireless LAN Controllers allows remote attackers to cause device reload by sending a malformed POST request to login.html during web authentication (WebAuth). The vulnerability affects software versions 4.x before 4.2.176.0 and 5.x before 5.2.157.0.

MitigationUpgrade Cisco WLC software to version 4.2.176.0 or later for 4.x branches, or 5.2.157.0 or later for 5.x branches to remediate this vulnerability.

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
4400 Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2= 5.2
Catalyst 3750 Series Integrated Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2= 5.2
Catalyst 6500 Series Integrated Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2= 5.2
Catalyst 7600 Series Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2= 5.2
Wireless Lan Controller SoftwareOperating system
Affected:= 4.1= 4.2= 5.2

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
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/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 WLC software version
    Log into the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller CLI and run the command 'show version' to display the installed software version. Alternatively, access the WLC web interface and check the controller summary page for the software version.
    Affected if The installed version is 4.x before 4.2.176.0, or 5.x before 5.2.157.0
  2. Confirm the controller model
    Use the CLI command 'show inventory' or check the web interface controller summary to identify the exact WLC model (Cisco 4400, Catalyst 3750/6500/7600 Series Integrated WLC).
    Affected if The controller is any of the models listed in the affected products for version 4.1, 4.2, or 5.2
  3. Verify WebAuth feature status
    In the WLC CLI, run 'show run-config auth-list' or access the web interface under Security > Web Authentication to check if Web Authentication is enabled on any WLANs or the controller.
    Affected if WebAuth is enabled and the controller is running a vulnerable software version
  4. Check web interface accessibility
    Confirm that the WLC web management interface (HTTP/HTTPS) is enabled and accessible by attempting to reach the login.html page or checking via CLI command 'show web-auth enabled'.
    Affected if Web interface is enabled on a vulnerable version, allowing the malformed POST request to trigger the DoS

The environment is affected if the controller runs software version 4.x before 4.2.176.0 or 5.x before 5.2.157.0 AND has Web Authentication enabled and accessible.

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 WLC software to version 4.2.176.0 or later for 4.x branches, or 5.2.157.0 or later for 5.x branches to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in 4400 Wireless Lan Controller Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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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-2009-0059 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
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