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Email Security Appliance FirmewareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2016-1315

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-02-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
The proxy engine in Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), when used with Email Security Appliance (ESA) 9.5.0-201, 9.6.0-051, and 9.7.0-125, allows remote attackers to bypass intended content restrictions via a malformed e-mail message containing an encoded file, aka Bug ID CSCux45338.

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 confidence

A vulnerability in the Cisco AMP proxy engine when integrated with Email Security Appliance (ESA) allows remote attackers to bypass content restrictions by sending malformed email messages containing encoded files. The affected versions are ESA 9.5.0-201, 9.6.0-051, and 9.7.0-125.

MitigationApply the vendor patch from Cisco for this vulnerability. Until patched, consider additional email content filtering layers or enhanced monitoring of encoded attachments.

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
Email Security Appliance FirmewareOperating system
Affected:= 9.1.0-032= 9.5.0-201= 9.6.0-051= 9.7.0-125= 9.7.0-782

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

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 Cisco ESA is running
    Access the ESA command-line interface (CLI) and run the command 'version' or use the web interface to check the appliance status.
    Affected if The appliance is running Cisco Email Security Appliance firmware matching version 9.1.0-032, 9.5.0-201, 9.6.0-051, 9.7.0-125, or 9.7.0-782.
  2. Verify the installed firmware version
    In the ESA CLI, run 'version' to display the full firmware version string. Compare it against the affected version list: 9.1.0-032, 9.5.0-201, 9.6.0-051, 9.7.0-125, 9.7.0-782.
    Affected if The displayed version exactly matches one of these versions.
  3. Confirm AMP is integrated with ESA
    Log into the ESA web interface and navigate to Security Services > Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) to verify if the AMP engine is enabled. Alternatively, run 'ampconfig' in the CLI.
    Affected if AMP is enabled and configured on the ESA, as the vulnerability exists in the AMP proxy engine integration.
  4. Check content filter policies for encoded attachments
    In the ESA web interface, go to Mail Policies > Incoming Content Filters or Outgoing Content Filters and examine rules that handle encoded or archived file types (such as base64, MIME-encoded, or compressed attachments).
    Affected if Content filters rely solely on AMP scanning without additional secondary checks, making the bypass possible.

You are affected if your ESA runs firmware version 9.1.0-032, 9.5.0-201, 9.6.0-051, 9.7.0-125, or 9.7.0-782 with AMP enabled and content filtering that depends on AMP to block malicious encoded attachments.

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 vendor patch from Cisco for this vulnerability. Until patched, consider additional email content filtering layers or enhanced monitoring of encoded attachments.

Fix this in Email Security Appliance Firmeware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,840
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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-2016-1315 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