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iOSOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2018-15375

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-10-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 the embedded test subsystem of Cisco IOS Software for Cisco 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Routers could allow an authenticated, local attacker to write arbitrary values to arbitrary locations in the memory space of an affected device. The vulnerability is due to the presence of certain test commands that were intended to be available only in internal development builds of the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using these commands on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to write arbitrary values to arbitrary locations in the memory space of the affected device.

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 the embedded test subsystem of Cisco IOS for 800 Series Industrial ISRs allows an authenticated, local attacker to write arbitrary values to arbitrary memory locations. The root cause is the presence of debug/test commands that should have been excluded from production builds but remained accessible. This provides a memory write primitive that could enable code execution or privilege escalation.

MitigationApply Cisco patches when available; otherwise restrict local administrative access to trusted personnel only and disable or work around the vulnerable test commands per Cisco guidance.

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
iOSOperating system
Affected:= 15.5\(2.21\)t= 15.6\(3\)m

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 device model
    Run 'show version' or 'show inventory' to confirm the hardware is a Cisco 800 Series Industrial ISR
    Affected if The device is not a Cisco 800 Series Industrial ISR then it is not affected by this specific vulnerability
  2. Check the Cisco IOS version
    Run 'show version' and locate the IOS version string in the output
    Affected if The version matches 15.5(2.21)t or 15.6(3)m exactly; if the version differs, check whether it falls within this specific release train and compare to the affected versions listed
  3. Verify access to test or debug commands
    Attempt to enter privileged exec mode and run 'test ?' or 'debug ?' to list available test/debug commands; also try 'show debugging' to see if any debug options are present
    Affected if Test or debug commands are available and respond to the '?' help prompt, indicating the embedded test subsystem is present and accessible
  4. Confirm authenticated local access exists
    Verify that local user accounts exist with privilege level 15 (administrative access) by running 'show running-config | include username' or checking 'show users'
    Affected if Local authenticated accounts with full administrative privileges are configured on the device, providing the access level required to exploit this vulnerability

You are affected if you have a Cisco 800 Series Industrial ISR running exactly IOS 15.5(2.21)t or 15.6(3)m, the test/debug subsystem is accessible, and local administrative accounts exist on the device.

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 patches when available; otherwise restrict local administrative access to trusted personnel only and disable or work around the vulnerable test commands per Cisco guidance.

Fix this in iOS Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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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-2018-15375 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