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Big Ip Access Policy ManagerApplication · F5

CVE-2018-5502

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-03-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 13.1.0.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
On F5 BIG-IP versions 13.0.0 - 13.1.0.3, attackers may be able to disrupt services on the BIG-IP system with maliciously crafted client certificate. This vulnerability affects virtual servers associated with Client SSL profile which enables the use of client certificate authentication. Client certificate authentication is not enabled by default in Client SSL profile. There is no control plane exposure.

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 denial of service vulnerability in F5 BIG-IP versions 13.0.0-13.1.0.3 allows remote attackers to disrupt services by sending maliciously crafted client certificates to virtual servers with Client SSL profiles that have client certificate authentication enabled.

MitigationUpgrade BIG-IP to a patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling client certificate authentication in affected Client SSL profiles or restricting access via iRule or firewall policies.

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
Big Ip Access Policy ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Advanced Firewall ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip AnalyticsApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Application Acceleration ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Application Security ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Domain Name SystemApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, <= 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Edge GatewayWeb browser
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4
Big Ip Global Traffic ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0, < 13.1.0.4

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 checks

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

  1. Check BIG-IP version
    Run 'tmsh show sys version' or access the web UI under Dashboard > Overview > System > Software Version to see the installed BIG-IP version.
    Affected if Version is 13.0.0 through 13.1.0.3 (any version >= 13.0.0 and < 13.1.0.4)
  2. Identify Client SSL profiles in use
    Run 'tmsh list ltm profile client-ssl all' to list all Client SSL profiles configured on the system.
    Affected if Any Client SSL profiles exist on the system
  3. Check if client certificate authentication is enabled
    For each Client SSL profile identified, run 'tmsh list ltm profile client-ssl <profile_name>' and look for 'client-cert' setting. Values such as 'request', 'require', or 'always' indicate client certificate authentication is enabled.
    Affected if Client-cert is set to 'request', 'require', or 'any' (not 'ignore' or not present)
  4. Identify virtual servers using affected Client SSL profiles
    Run 'tmsh list ltm virtual all' and look for virtual servers that reference the Client SSL profiles with client-cert enabled in their 'profiles' section.
    Affected if Any virtual server references a Client SSL profile with client-cert enabled

System is affected if BIG-IP version is 13.0.0-13.1.0.3 AND there are virtual servers using Client SSL profiles with client certificate authentication (client-cert) enabled.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 13.1.0.4 or later
Fixed in 13.1.0.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade BIG-IP to a patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling client certificate authentication in affected Client SSL profiles or restricting access via iRule or firewall policies.

Fix this in Big Ip Access Policy Manager 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
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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-2018-5502 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