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iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2012-1327

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-05-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
66/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
dot11t/t_if_dot11_hal_ath.c in Cisco IOS 12.3, 12.4, 15.0, and 15.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (assertion failure and reboot) via 802.11 wireless traffic, as demonstrated by a video call from Apple iOS 5.0 on an iPhone 4S, aka Bug ID CSCtt94391.

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 vulnerability in the 802.11 wireless Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) driver for Atheros chipsets (dot11t/t_if_dot11_hal_ath.c) in Cisco IOS versions 12.3, 12.4, 15.0, and 15.1 allows remote attackers to trigger an assertion failure via specially crafted 802.11 wireless frames, causing the affected device to reboot. The issue was demonstrated with Apple iOS 5.0 video call traffic from an iPhone 4S.

MitigationApply the Cisco IOS security update corresponding to Bug ID CSCtt94391. If immediate patching is not possible, consider deploying wireless intrusion detection/prevention systems to filter malformed 802.11 frames and implement network access control to limit which devices can associate with affected access points.

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:= 12.3= 12.4= 15.0= 15.1

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
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:A/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 the Cisco IOS version
    Use the 'show version' command on the device console or via SSH to display the running IOS version
    Affected if The displayed version is 12.3, 12.4, 15.0, or 15.1
  2. Confirm wireless hardware is present
    Use 'show hardware' or 'show interfaces' command to list installed interface cards and identify if wireless AIM, WIC, or access point modules are installed
    Affected if Wireless interface modules or built-in wireless hardware are present in the device
  3. Verify Atheros chipset usage
    Use 'show controller wireless' or 'show diag' to identify the wireless chipset vendor. Atheros chipsets will be listed in the controller output
    Affected if The wireless controller uses an Atheros chipset (ath, ARxxxx)
  4. Check if 802.11 radio is configured
    Use 'show run | include ap' or 'show wireless configuration' to see if any access point or radio configurations exist
    Affected if Any 802.11a/b/g/n radio interfaces are configured or enabled on the device

The device is affected if it runs Cisco IOS 12.3, 12.4, 15.0, or 15.1, has Atheros-based wireless hardware, and has 802.11 radio interfaces enabled.

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

Apply the Cisco IOS security update corresponding to Bug ID CSCtt94391. If immediate patching is not possible, consider deploying wireless intrusion detection/prevention systems to filter malformed 802.11 frames and implement network access control to limit which devices can associate with affected access points.

Fix this in iOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,240
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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-2012-1327 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
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