Big Ip Local Traffic ManagerApplication · F5

CVE-2018-5514

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-05-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 13.1.0.5 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 13.1.0-13.1.0.5, maliciously crafted HTTP/2 request frames can lead to denial of service. There is data plane exposure for virtual servers when the HTTP2 profile is enabled. There is no control plane exposure to this issue.

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

F5 BIG-IP 13.1.0-13.1.0.5 contains a denial-of-service vulnerability in the data plane where maliciously crafted HTTP/2 request frames can crash virtual servers when the HTTP2 profile is enabled. The issue affects only data plane traffic, not the control plane.

MitigationUpgrade BIG-IP to version 13.1.0.6 or later, or disable the HTTP/2 profile on affected virtual servers until patching is feasible.

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 Local Traffic ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Application Acceleration ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Advanced Firewall ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip AnalyticsApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Access Policy ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Application Security ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Edge GatewayWeb browser
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5
Big Ip Global Traffic ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 13.1.0, <= 13.1.0.5

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. Identify the BIG-IP version
    Run 'tmsh show /sys version' or check the web UI under System > Software > Image List. Confirm the version number starts with 13.1.0.
    Affected if The version is 13.1.0, 13.1.0.1, 13.1.0.2, 13.1.0.3, 13.1.0.4, or 13.1.0.5.
  2. Locate HTTP/2 profiles on the system
    Run 'tmsh list /ltm profile http2' to list all HTTP/2 profiles configured on the device.
    Affected if Any HTTP/2 profiles exist in the configuration.
  3. Identify virtual servers using HTTP/2
    Run 'tmsh list /ltm virtual' and search for lines containing 'http2' or 'profile http2' to see which virtual servers have an HTTP/2 profile assigned.
    Affected if Any virtual server has an HTTP/2 profile explicitly assigned.
  4. Check default HTTP/2 profile assignment
    Review the HTTP/2 profile settings and check if the profile is set as the default via 'tmsh list /ltm profile http2 <profile_name>' to see if it applies broadly.
    Affected if An HTTP/2 profile exists and is set as the default or applied to multiple virtual servers.

If the BIG-IP version is between 13.1.0 and 13.1.0.5 inclusive and any virtual server has an HTTP/2 profile enabled, the environment is vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks via malicious HTTP/2 request frames.

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 a release after 13.1.0.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade BIG-IP to version 13.1.0.6 or later, or disable the HTTP/2 profile on affected virtual servers until patching is feasible.

Fix this in Big Ip Local Traffic Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-5514 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-5514 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