dbcve.org
Secure Firewall Management CenterApplication · Cisco

CVE-2017-12245

HIGH · 8.6 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-10-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
A vulnerability in SSL traffic decryption for Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause depletion of system memory, aka a Firepower Detection Engine SSL Decryption Memory Consumption Denial of Service vulnerability. If this memory leak persists over time, a denial of service (DoS) condition could develop because traffic can cease to be forwarded through the device. The vulnerability is due to an error in how the Firepower Detection Snort Engine handles SSL traffic decryption and notifications to and from the Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) handler. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a steady stream of malicious Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) traffic through the device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition when the device runs low on system memory. This vulnerability affects Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software Releases 6.0.1 and later, running on any of the following Cisco products: Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls, Firepower 2100 Series Security Appliances, Firepower 4100 Series Security Appliances, Firepower 9300 Series Security Appliances. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve02069.

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 memory leak vulnerability exists in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software's SSL traffic decryption functionality. The Firepower Detection Snort Engine mishandles SSL decryption and notifications to/from the ASA handler, causing memory depletion when processing malicious SSL traffic. An unauthenticated remote attacker can trigger this DoS by sending a steady stream of crafted SSL traffic through the affected device.

MitigationApply Cisco's software update for CVE-2017-12245; until then, consider disabling SSL decryption if feasible, or implement rate limiting on SSL/TLS connections to mitigate the steady stream attack vector.

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
Affected:= 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= 6.2.2

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center version
    Log into the FMC web interface and navigate to Help > About, or use the CLI and run 'show version' to display the installed software version.
    Affected if The installed version matches one of the affected versions: 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.
  2. Verify if SSL Decryption policy is enabled
    In the FMC web interface, go to Policies > SSL Decryption to determine whether an SSL decryption policy is active and applied to traffic.
    Affected if An SSL decryption policy is enabled and applied, because the vulnerability exists in the SSL decryption functionality.
  3. Check device memory utilization
    Use the CLI on the managed device or FMC to run 'show memory' or access system monitoring graphs in the FMC dashboard to observe current memory usage.
    Affected if Memory usage is abnormally high or steadily increasing without returning to baseline, which may indicate the memory leak is active.
  4. Review traffic logs for SSL anomalies
    In the FMC, examine the intrusion or connection events for patterns of high-volume SSL/TLS traffic that may indicate an attack attempt.
    Affected if There is a steady stream of SSL traffic being processed while SSL decryption is enabled on an affected version.

You are affected if the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center runs one of the listed vulnerable versions AND has SSL decryption enabled, with memory depletion observed during SSL traffic processing.

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 Cisco's software update for CVE-2017-12245; until then, consider disabling SSL decryption if feasible, or implement rate limiting on SSL/TLS connections to mitigate the steady stream attack vector.

Fix this in Secure Firewall Management Center Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing16.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
40.0 hours of engineering $6,880
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,008.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-12245 — 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-2017-12245 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