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iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2012-0388

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-03-29
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
Memory leak in the H.323 inspection feature in the Zone-Based Firewall in Cisco IOS 12.4, 15.0, 15.1, and 15.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption or device reload) via malformed transit H.323 traffic, aka Bug ID CSCtq45553.

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 IOS Zone-Based Firewall's H.323 inspection feature allows remote attackers to cause denial of service via malformed H.323 traffic, leading to memory exhaustion or device reload.

MitigationUpgrade Cisco IOS to a patched version that addresses CSCtq45553, or disable H.323 inspection in the Zone-Based Firewall if not required.

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
iOSOperating system
Affected:= 12.4= 15.0= 15.1= 15.2

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. Check Cisco IOS version
    Run 'show version' command and note the firmware version in the output (e.g., 12.4.x, 15.0.x, 15.1.x, or 15.2.x)
    Affected if The version falls within 12.4, 15.0, 15.1, or 15.2 release trains
  2. Verify Zone-Based Firewall is active
    Run 'show zone-pair security' to list configured security zones and zone-pairs
    Affected if Output shows active zone-pairs with security policies applied
  3. Confirm H.323 inspection is enabled
    Run 'show policy-map type inspect' and look for H.323 in the inspect configuration, or use 'show class-map type inspect' to list inspected protocols
    Affected if H.323 protocol inspection appears in the policy-map or class-map output
  4. Check for H.323-specific zone-pair rules
    Run 'show zone-pair security' and inspect the policy-map names referenced, then run 'show policy-map type inspect zone-pair <name>' to view protocol details
    Affected if A zone-pair policy explicitly includes H.323 inspection

The device is affected if it runs Cisco IOS 12.4, 15.0, 15.1, or 15.2 AND has Zone-Based Firewall configured with H.323 inspection enabled, exposing it to the memory leak vulnerability.

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 IOS to a patched version that addresses CSCtq45553, or disable H.323 inspection in the Zone-Based Firewall if not required.

Fix this in iOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2012-0388 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data