dbcve.org
iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2014-2112

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-03-27
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
The SSL VPN (aka WebVPN) feature in Cisco IOS 15.1 through 15.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via crafted HTTP requests, aka Bug ID CSCuf51357.

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

The SSL VPN (WebVPN) feature in Cisco IOS versions 15.1 through 15.4 contains a denial of service vulnerability where crafted HTTP requests cause excessive memory consumption, potentially rendering the VPN service unavailable.

MitigationApply Cisco IOS security updates or upgrade to a patched version beyond 15.4; as interim measures, implement rate limiting on WebVPN interfaces or restrict access to trusted IP ranges.

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:= 15.1= 15.2= 15.3= 15.4

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. Identify the Cisco IOS version
    Run the command 'show version' on the device CLI and locate the IOS version string (typically shown as 'Version 15.X').
    Affected if The version falls within 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, or 15.4.
  2. Confirm WebVPN feature is enabled
    Run 'show running-config | include webvpn' or 'show webvpn status' to check if SSL VPN/WebVPN is configured on the device.
    Affected if WebVPN configuration is present in the running config.
  3. Check WebVPN interface binding
    Run 'show webvpn interface' to identify which interfaces have WebVPN enabled and are accepting connections.
    Affected if WebVPN is active on any interface, particularly internet-facing interfaces.
  4. Review device memory usage baseline
    Run 'show memory summary' or 'show process memory history' to establish current memory consumption levels for comparison.
    Affected if Memory consumption is abnormally high or increasing unexpectedly, which may indicate active exploitation.

A device is affected if it runs Cisco IOS versions 15.1 through 15.4, has WebVPN feature enabled, and is exposed to network traffic where crafted HTTP requests can reach the WebVPN service.

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 Cisco IOS security updates or upgrade to a patched version beyond 15.4; as interim measures, implement rate limiting on WebVPN interfaces or restrict access to trusted IP ranges.

Fix this in iOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-2112 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2014-2112 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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