dbcve.org
Aironet 1562 FirmwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2017-12273

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-11-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
70/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 802.11 association request frame processing for the Cisco Aironet 1560, 2800, and 3800 Series Access Points could allow an unauthenticated, Layer 2 radio frequency (RF) adjacent attacker to cause the Access Point (AP) to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to insufficient frame validation of the 802.11 association request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed 802.11 association request to the targeted device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the AP to reload, resulting in a DoS condition while the AP is reloading. This vulnerability affects the following Cisco products running either the Lightweight AP Software or Mobility Express image: Aironet 1560 Series Access Points, Aironet 2800 Series Access Points, Aironet 3800 Series Access Points. Note: The Cisco Aironet 1560 Series Access Point device is supported as of release 8.3.112.0. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve12189.

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 vulnerability in 802.11 association request frame processing in Cisco Aironet 1560, 2800, and 3800 Series Access Points allows an unauthenticated, Layer 2 RF adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service by sending malformed association requests that trigger an AP reload. The root cause is insufficient frame validation of 802.11 association requests.

MitigationApply the Cisco firmware update addressing this vulnerability during a planned maintenance window; if no patch is available, consider network segmentation or wireless intrusion prevention to filter malformed frames.

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
Aironet 1562 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 2800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 3800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions

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
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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. Identify the Access Point model
    Log into the Cisco AP, wireless controller, or use commands such as 'show version' or 'show ap model' to determine if the device is a Cisco Aironet 1560, 2800, or 3800 series model
    Affected if The model is a Cisco Aironet 1562, 2800, or 3800 series Access Point
  2. Confirm the firmware version
    Use 'show version' or access the AP's web interface to view the installed firmware version
    Affected if Any firmware version is installed on the affected model (all versions are vulnerable)
  3. Verify the wireless radio is enabled
    Check the AP status via 'show ap config general' or the wireless controller dashboard to confirm the 802.11 radios are enabled and the AP is operational
    Affected if The AP is actively beaconing and accepting wireless client associations (radio is enabled in up state)
  4. Check for unexpected AP reloads
    Review AP logs or use 'show logging' to look for sudden reload events, especially if correlated with high volumes of association request traffic
    Affected if The AP has experienced unexplained reloads or crashes

If you have a Cisco Aironet 1560, 2800, or 3800 series Access Point with any firmware version and the wireless radio is enabled, your environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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 firmware update addressing this vulnerability during a planned maintenance window; if no patch is available, consider network segmentation or wireless intrusion prevention to filter malformed frames.

Fix this in Aironet 1562 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-12273 — 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-2017-12273 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