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Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance · Cisco

CVE-2013-6699

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-11-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol implementation on Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) devices allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted CAPWAP packet that triggers a buffer over-read, aka Bug ID CSCuh81880.

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 confidence

A buffer over-read vulnerability exists in the CAPWAP (Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points) protocol implementation on Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) devices. Remote attackers can send a specially crafted CAPWAP packet to trigger the buffer over-read, causing a denial of service condition on the affected device.

MitigationApply the corresponding Cisco firmware update for WLC devices to address the buffer over-read vulnerability in the CAPWAP protocol implementation. If a patch is unavailable, consider network segmentation to limit CAPWAP exposure to untrusted networks.

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
Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions

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
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

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. Confirm device is a Cisco Wireless LAN Controller
    Check the device model via 'show inventory' or 'show version' CLI command. Look for product identifiers such as WLC, Wireless LAN Controller, or models like 5500, 7500, 8500 series, or virtual WLC (vWLC).
    Affected if The device is a Cisco Wireless LAN Controller model.
  2. Verify CAPWAP protocol is enabled
    Execute 'show capwap summary' or 'show ap join summary' on the WLC CLI. CAPWAP is the native protocol for AP-controller communication and is typically enabled by default.
    Affected if CAPWAP is active and the WLC is managing access points.
  3. Review system logs for crash or reload events
    Execute 'show crash' and 'show logging' to examine recent system crashes, unexpected reloads, or process failures that may indicate the buffer over-read has been triggered.
    Affected if Unexpected crashes, reloads, or CAPWAP-related process failures are present in logs.
  4. Check for abnormal CAPWAP packet patterns
    If packet capture or NetFlow/sFlow logging is available, examine incoming CAPWAP traffic for anomalies or from untrusted sources. Use 'debug capwap' sparingly to avoid performance impact.
    Affected if Unusual CAPWAP packet volumes or malformed packets are observed from untrusted network segments.
  5. Assess network exposure of CAPWAP service
    Review network segmentation and ACLs to determine if CAPWAP UDP ports (5246/5247) are accessible from untrusted networks or the internet.
    Affected if CAPWAP ports are reachable from untrusted or external networks without filtering.

If the device is a Cisco Wireless LAN Controller with CAPWAP enabled and exposed to potential malicious CAPWAP packets, it is affected by CVE-2013-6699 since all versions contain the 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

Apply the corresponding Cisco firmware update for WLC devices to address the buffer over-read vulnerability in the CAPWAP protocol implementation. If a patch is unavailable, consider network segmentation to limit CAPWAP exposure to untrusted networks.

Fix this in Wireless Lan Controller Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2013-6699 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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