CVE-2015-6270
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 IOS XE before 2.2.3 on ASR 1000 devices allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (Embedded Services Processor crash) via a crafted IPv6 packet, aka Bug ID CSCsv98555.
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 confidenceA denial-of-service vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE before version 2.2.3 on ASR 1000 devices allows remote attackers to crash the Embedded Services Processor (ESP) by sending a specially crafted IPv6 packet. The vulnerability is in the IPv6 packet processing path and can be exploited without authentication.
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= 2.2.1= 2.2.2CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the device modelRun 'show version' or 'show platform' command and look for ASR 1000 series in the outputAffected if Device is not a Cisco ASR 1000 series router - this CVE only affects ASR 1000 platforms
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Check the IOS XE versionRun 'show version' and locate the 'IOS XE' version number in the output. Compare it to the affected versions 2.2.1 and 2.2.2Affected if IOS XE version is exactly 2.2.1 or 2.2.2 - only these versions are vulnerable
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Verify IPv6 is enabledRun 'show ipv6 interface brief' to check if any IPv6 interfaces are configured and activeAffected if IPv6 is enabled on any interface - the vulnerability lies in the IPv6 packet processing path, so IPv6 must be active for exploitation
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Check ESP status after receiving IPv6 trafficMonitor output of 'show platform' or 'show esp hardware' command, particularly after the device processes IPv6 trafficAffected if ESP shows crash, reload, or abnormal status - the vulnerability causes ESP crashes when specially crafted IPv6 packets are processed
Device is affected if it is a Cisco ASR 1000 running IOS XE version 2.2.1 or 2.2.2 with IPv6 enabled and exposed to untrusted IPv6 traffic.
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 dataUpgrade Cisco IOS XE to version 2.2.3 or later on affected ASR 1000 devices. If immediate patching is not possible, consider filtering or rate-limiting unexpected IPv6 traffic at network perimeter as a temporary mitigation until the update can be applied.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-6270 — 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-2015-6270 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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- 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
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