5500 Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance · Cisco
CVE-2012-5415
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 · uneditedRace condition on Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) devices allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption or device reload) by establishing multiple connections, leading to improper handling of hash lookups for secondary flows, aka Bug IDs CSCue31622 and CSCuc71272.
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 · moderate confidenceThis is a race condition vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) where improper handling of hash lookups for secondary flows during multiple connection establishments can lead to CPU exhaustion or device reload. Remote attackers can trigger this condition by establishing multiple connections, causing a denial of service.
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
5500 Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance
= 7.2
5500 Series Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance
all versions= 7.2
Adaptive Security ApplianceHardware / appliance
all versionsCVSS 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
- High
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the device as a Cisco ASALog into the device CLI and run 'show version' or 'show inventory' to confirm the device model is a Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) or ASA 5500 SeriesAffected if The device is confirmed to be a Cisco ASA or ASA 5500 Series appliance
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Check the ASA software versionRun 'show version' and locate the 'System image' or 'Software Version' line. Compare the version number against the affected ranges (7.2 or all versions for ASA 5500 Series)Affected if The installed version is 7.2 or falls within any affected version range for the ASA platform
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Monitor for CPU exhaustion or unexpected reloadsRun 'show processes cpu history' or 'show cpu usage' during normal operation. Check 'show crashinfo' or logging buffers for unexpected device reloadsAffected if Device exhibits high CPU usage (sustained above 80%) or experiences unexplained reloads when processing multiple concurrent connections
You are affected if the device is a Cisco ASA running any version (specifically 7.2 for the 5500 model) and it accepts remote connections that could trigger the hash lookup race condition during secondary flow establishment.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply the relevant Cisco ASA software updates or patches associated with bug IDs CSCue31622 and CSCuc71272. If no patch is available, implement rate limiting or connection limits as a temporary workaround.
Fix this in 5500 Adaptive Security Appliance
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-5415 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-5415 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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