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Wireless Lan Controller SoftwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2010-2842

HIGH · 9.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2010-09-10
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

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
Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) software, possibly 4.2 through 6.0, allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended access restrictions and modify the configuration, and possibly obtain administrative privileges, via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2010-2843 and CVE-2010-3033.

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-264

A legacy NVD category covering weaknesses where permissions or privileges are assigned, checked, or dropped incorrectly, so an action ends up running with more access than it should. It is an umbrella label from older records, not a single flaw. The remedy depends on the specific case, but the throughline is least privilege with explicit, checked transitions wherever privilege changes.

General guidance for the permissions, privileges & access controls 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
Wireless Lan Controller SoftwareOperating system
Affected:= 4.2= 4.2.61.0= 4.2.99.0= 4.2.112.0= 4.2.117.0= 4.2.130.0= 4.2.173.0= 4.2.174.0= 4.2.176.0= 4.2.182.0= 5.0.148.0= 5.0.148.2

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
Single
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch tools.cisco.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Upgrade to the Cisco WLC version indicated in the Cisco security alert 21290 (typically a later 4.2.x release or 5.x/6.x branch with the fix applied)

  1. 1. Access the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller administrative interface.
  2. 2. Navigate to the Cisco security advisory at http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=21290 to obtain the specific patch or fixed version information.
  3. 3. Download the recommended fixed Cisco WLC software version from the Cisco download portal (requires valid Cisco service contract).
  4. 4. Back up the current WLC configuration.
  5. 5. Upload and install the fixed software version following Cisco's standard upgrade procedures.
  6. 6. Verify the configuration and test wireless network functionality after upgrade.
  7. 7. Confirm the vulnerability is remediated by reviewing the system logs and verifying access controls.
Caveat Ensure compatibility with associated wireless access points and verify that any legacy configuration settings are supported in the target version before production deployment

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

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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-2010-2842 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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