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Ios XrOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2014-3308

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-07-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
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
Cisco IOS XR on Trident line cards in ASR 9000 devices lacks a static punt policer, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) by sending many crafted packets, aka Bug ID CSCun83985.

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

This is a denial of service vulnerability in Cisco IOS XR running on Trident line cards in ASR 9000 devices. The issue is the absence of a static punt policer, which normally limits the rate of packets forwarded to the CPU for processing. Without this control, remote attackers can send crafted packets to exhaust CPU resources, causing device malfunction.

MitigationApply the Cisco IOS XR software update that includes the punt policer fix (contact Cisco for specific fixed versions). Until patched, implement network-level access controls to limit exposure to untrusted sources reaching affected line cards.

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
Ios XrOperating system
Affected:all versions
Asr 9000 Rsp440 RouterHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9001Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9006Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9010Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9904Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9912Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Asr 9922Hardware / 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
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/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 ASR 9000 series
    Run 'show platform' or 'show version' to identify the router model (ASR 9001, 9006, 9010, 9904, 9912, 9922, or ASR 9000 with RSP440)
    Affected if Device model matches any listed in affected products
  2. Confirm IOS XR is running
    Run 'show version' and verify the operating system is Cisco IOS XR
    Affected if Device runs Cisco IOS XR
  3. Check for Trident line cards
    Run 'show platform' or 'show hw-module' to identify installed line cards and their type
    Affected if Device contains Trident-based line cards (verify via 'show diag' or 'show inventory')
  4. Verify punt policer configuration
    Run 'show controller punt-policer' or 'show run | include punt' to check if a static punt policer is configured to limit CPU-bound traffic rates
    Affected if No punt policer is configured or the command returns no policer entries (device lacks rate limiting on packets forwarded to CPU)
  5. Monitor CPU utilization under traffic load
    Run 'show processes cpu' or 'show platform cpu' during normal and peak traffic to observe CPU usage patterns
    Affected if CPU utilization spikes excessively or shows sustained high usage when receiving traffic, indicating possible punt police exhaustion

Device is affected if it is an ASR 9000 series router running IOS XR with Trident line cards and lacks a configured static punt policer to limit punt traffic rates.

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 XR software update that includes the punt policer fix (contact Cisco for specific fixed versions). Until patched, implement network-level access controls to limit exposure to untrusted sources reaching affected line cards.

Fix this in Ios Xr Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,940
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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-2014-3308 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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