dbcve.org
Application Policy Infrastructure ControllerApplication · Cisco

CVE-2015-6424

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-12-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
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 boot manager in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) 1.1(0.920a) allows local users to bypass intended access restrictions and obtain single-user-mode root access via unspecified vectors, aka Bug ID CSCuu83985.

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

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco APIC's boot manager allows authenticated local users to bypass access controls and obtain single-user-mode root access. The vulnerability resides in the boot manager component, enabling attackers with local access to intercept or manipulate the boot process.

MitigationApply the Cisco patch for bug ID CSCuu83985 to upgrade to a fixed APIC version. Until patched, enforce physical security controls on APIC hardware to prevent unauthorized local access to boot sequences.

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
Application Policy Infrastructure ControllerApplication
Affected:= 1.1\(0.920a\)

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/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. Confirm the device is a Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller
    Run 'show version' or check system inventory via APIC CLI to identify the device model/type
    Affected if The device is NOT a Cisco APIC (not affected by this vulnerability)
  2. Retrieve the installed APIC software version
    Execute 'show version' in the APIC CLI or check via the APIC web interface to obtain the exact firmware version number
    Affected if The version is exactly 1.1(0.920a)
  3. Check for local user authentication configuration
    Review APIC user accounts using 'show user' or the user management interface to determine if local authenticated accounts exist
    Affected if Local authenticated users are configured on the APIC
  4. Assess physical access to the boot manager
    Determine if the APIC console is accessible to local users who could interrupt or manipulate the boot process
    Affected if Local users have physical or console access to the APIC boot sequence

The environment is affected if it is a Cisco APIC running exactly version 1.1(0.920a) with local user accounts and physical/console access that could allow boot process manipulation.

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 patch for bug ID CSCuu83985 to upgrade to a fixed APIC version. Until patched, enforce physical security controls on APIC hardware to prevent unauthorized local access to boot sequences.

Fix this in Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,840
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,544.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-6424 — 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-2015-6424 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