Wireless Lan ControllerHardware / appliance · Cisco
CVE-2014-3291
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 · uneditedCisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) devices allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and device restart) via a zero value in Cisco Discovery Protocol packet data that is not properly handled during SNMP polling, aka Bug ID CSCuo12321.
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 confidenceCisco Wireless LAN Controller devices contain a vulnerability where a zero value in Cisco Discovery Protocol packet data triggers a NULL pointer dereference during SNMP polling, causing the device to restart. An attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted CDP packets with malformed data to a targeted WLC device.
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
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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:A/AC:M/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 modelLog into the WLC CLI or web interface and run 'show inventory' or check the device型号 to confirm it is a Cisco Wireless LAN ControllerAffected if The device is any Cisco Wireless LAN Controller model
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Verify CDP is enabledRun 'show cdp neighbor' or check the CDP status in the WLC web interface under Security > CDPAffected if CDP is enabled on the device (CDP is typically enabled by default)
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Verify SNMP is enabledRun 'show snmp' or check SNMP settings in the WLC web interface under Management > SNMPAffected if SNMP is enabled and accessible (SNMP is typically enabled by default for management)
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Check firmware versionRun 'show version' or check the firmware version in the WLC web interface under Monitor > Controller SummaryAffected if The device is running any version of Cisco WLC firmware (all versions are affected per the CVE)
A user is affected if the device is a Cisco Wireless LAN Controller with CDP and SNMP both enabled, regardless of firmware version since all versions are vulnerable.
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 Cisco firmware update addressing Bug ID CSCuo12321. If immediate patching is not feasible, consider restricting SNMP access to trusted management networks and implementing CDP packet filtering at network boundaries.
Fix this in Wireless Lan Controller
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $3,680.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-3291 — 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-2014-3291 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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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.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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