Secure Firewall Management CenterApplication · Cisco
CVE-2017-12244
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 · uneditedA vulnerability in the detection engine parsing of IPv6 packets for Cisco Firepower System Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization or to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition because the Snort process restarts unexpectedly. The vulnerability is due to improper input validation of the fields in the IPv6 extension header packet. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious IPv6 packet to the detection engine on the targeted device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition if the Snort process restarts and traffic inspection is bypassed or traffic is dropped. This vulnerability is specific to IPv6 traffic only. This vulnerability affects Cisco Firepower System Software Releases 6.0 and later when the software has one or more file action policies configured and is running on any of the following Cisco products: 3000 Series Industrial Security Appliances (ISR), Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500-X Series with FirePOWER Services, Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Networks, 7000 Series Appliances, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Networks, 8000 Series Appliances, FirePOWER 7000 Series Appliances, FirePOWER 8000 Series Appliances, Firepower Threat Defense for Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), Firepower 2100 Series Security Appliances, Firepower 4100 Series Security Appliances, Firepower 9300 Series Security Appliances, Virtual Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPSv) for VMware. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvd34776.
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 vulnerability in the Snort detection engine's IPv6 packet parsing allows unauthenticated remote attackers to send malformed IPv6 extension header packets that cause high CPU utilization or force the Snort process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service condition with potential traffic inspection bypass or packet drops.
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
Secure Firewall Management CenterApplication
= 6.0.0= 6.0.0.0= 6.0.0.1= 6.0.1= 6.0.1.3= 6.1.0= 6.1.0.3= 6.1.0.6= 6.2.0= 6.2.0.2= 6.2.1= 6.2.2CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 Firepower Management Center versionAccess the Firepower Management Center web interface and navigate to System > About > Cisco Firepower (or use CLI: show version)Affected if the displayed version matches any of the following: 6.0.0, 6.0.0.0, 6.0.0.1, 6.0.1, 6.0.1.3, 6.1.0, 6.1.0.3, 6.1.0.6, 6.2.0, 6.2.0.2, 6.2.1, or 6.2.2
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Confirm Snort inspection is active for IPv6In the Firepower Management Center, navigate to Policies > Access Control > Edit a policy > Add Rule > Check if the rule has 'IPv6' enabled under the Protocol section, or inspect the Snort configuration file for 'preprocessor snort_protoabinder' rules that include IPv6Affected if IPv6 traffic is being inspected by Snort (either through an active access control rule covering IPv6 or an explicit IPv6 inspection policy)
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Verify the Snort detection engine is processing IPv6 packetsCheck the Snort configuration (usually in /etc/snort/snort.conf or via Firepower CLI: show running-config snort) for IPv6-related preprocessor configurations such as 'preprocessor ipv6' or 'decode-preprocessor' rules handling IPv6 extension headersAffected if IPv6 preprocessors or decoders are enabled in the active Snort configuration
You are affected if your Firepower Management Center version is one of the listed affected versions AND IPv6 inspection is actively processing traffic through Snort, enabling the malformed IPv6 extension header packets to trigger high CPU or Snort process restarts.
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 dataApply the Cisco patch for bug CSCvd34776 (upgrade to fixed Firepower System Software release), or as a workaround, disable IPv6 inspection or implement upstream IPv6 packet filtering to block malicious packets before reaching the Firepower device.
Fix this in Secure Firewall Management Center
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-12244 — 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-2017-12244 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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