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Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2015-4238

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-07-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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 SNMP implementation in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 8.4(7) and 8.6(1.2) allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (device reload) by sending many SNMP requests during a time of high network traffic, aka Bug ID CSCul02601.

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

A denial of service vulnerability exists in the SNMP implementation of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software versions 8.4(7) and 8.6(1.2). Remote authenticated users can trigger a device reload by sending numerous SNMP requests during periods of high network traffic, causing the ASA to crash and restart.

MitigationUpgrade Cisco ASA Software to a version beyond 8.4(7) and 8.6(1.2) that addresses this vulnerability. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict SNMP access to trusted management networks and limit the number of authenticated SNMP users.

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
Adaptive Security Appliance SoftwareOperating system
Affected:= 8.4\(7\)= 8.6\(1.2\)

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
Single
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/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. Check ASA software version
    Run 'show version' on the ASA CLI to identify the installed software version
    Affected if The version displayed is 8.4(7) or 8.6(1.2)
  2. Verify SNMP is enabled
    Run 'show snmp-server' or 'show run snmp-server' to check if SNMP is configured and active
    Affected if SNMP server is enabled and running on the device
  3. Check SNMP access configuration
    Run 'show snmp-server group' and 'show snmp-server user' to see which SNMP users or communities have access and from which hosts
    Affected if SNMP users or community strings are configured with remote access (any host or non-loopback addresses)
  4. Identify SNMP interface binding
    Run 'show snmp-server engineid' and check 'show run | include snmp-server' for interface bindings
    Affected if SNMP is bound to any interface other than the loopback or management-only interface, indicating potential external exposure
  5. Review SNMP access control lists
    Check for 'snmp-server access-list' entries or interface ACLs that may permit or restrict SNMP traffic
    Affected if SNMP traffic is permitted from untrusted networks or there are no ACLs restricting SNMP access

The device is affected if it runs ASA version 8.4(7) or 8.6(1.2) and has SNMP enabled with remote authenticated access exposed to untrusted networks.

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

Upgrade Cisco ASA Software to a version beyond 8.4(7) and 8.6(1.2) that addresses this vulnerability. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict SNMP access to trusted management networks and limit the number of authenticated SNMP users.

Fix this in Adaptive Security Appliance Software Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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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-2015-4238 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
  • 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