Identity Services EngineApplication · Cisco
CVE-2017-6653
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 TCP throttling process for the GUI of the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) 2.1(0.474) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device where the ISE GUI may fail to respond to new or established connection requests. The vulnerability is due to insufficient TCP rate limiting protection on the GUI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending the affected device a high rate of TCP connections to the GUI. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the GUI to stop responding while the high rate of connections is in progress. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc81803.
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 TCP throttling process for Cisco ISE GUI allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause a DoS condition by sending a high rate of TCP connections to the GUI. The insufficient TCP rate limiting protection causes the GUI to fail to respond to new or established connection requests.
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
Identity Services EngineApplication
= 2.1\(0.474\)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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Cisco ISE version via CLILog into the Cisco ISE CLI and run the command: show version. Look for the software version in the output.Affected if The displayed version is exactly 2.1(0.474)
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Identify Cisco ISE version via GUILog into the Cisco ISE administrative web interface, navigate to Administration > System > Licensing, and view the Software Version field.Affected if The software version listed is exactly 2.1(0.474)
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Verify if ISE GUI is network accessibleFrom an external host, attempt to reach the ISE GUI port (typically TCP 443 or 8443) using a tool like telnet or nc: nc -zv <ISE-IP> 443Affected if The GUI port is reachable from untrusted networks and the version is 2.1(0.474)
You are affected if Cisco ISE version 2.1(0.474) is running and the administrative GUI is network-accessible.
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 CSCvc81803, which adds proper TCP rate limiting protection to the ISE GUI. If patching is delayed, consider implementing upstream network-level rate limiting to restrict connections to the GUI port.
Fix this in Identity Services Engine
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-6653 — 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-2017-6653 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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- 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
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