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Aironet 1540 FirmwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2019-15264

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-10-16
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 the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol implementation of Cisco Aironet and Catalyst 9100 Access Points (APs) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an affected device to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to improper resource management during CAPWAP message processing. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high volume of legitimate wireless management frames within a short time to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a device to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition for clients associated with the AP.

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 · moderate confidence

This vulnerability exists in the CAPWAP protocol implementation of Cisco Aironet and Catalyst 9100 Access Points. An unauthenticated, adjacent attacker can trigger improper resource management during CAPWAP message processing by sending a high volume of legitimate wireless management frames in a short time period, causing the affected device to unexpectedly restart and result in a denial of service.

MitigationApply the appropriate Cisco firmware update when available. In the interim, consider network segmentation and access control lists to limit adjacent attacker reach to affected access points.

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 1540 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 1560 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 1850 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions= 8.9\(1.249\)= 8.9\(1.255\)= 8.9\(4.28\)= 8.9\(4.41\)= 8.9\(4.49\)= 8.9\(4.55\)= 8.9\(4.58\)= 8.9\(104.24\)= 8.10\(1.139\)= 8.10\(1.146\)
Aironet 2800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 3800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Aironet 4800 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Catalyst 9100 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:3.1/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 device model
    Log into the AP CLI or controller and run 'show version' or check the device label to confirm the model number (e.g., Aironet 1540, 1560, 1850, 2800, 3800, 4800, or Catalyst 9100)
    Affected if The device is a Cisco Aironet 1540, 1560, 1850, 2800, 3800, 4800, or Catalyst 9100 model AP
  2. Check the firmware version
    Run 'show version' on the AP CLI or check via controller to retrieve the current firmware version number
    Affected if For Aironet 1540, 1560, 2800, 3800, 4800, and Catalyst 9100: any firmware version is affected (all versions listed as vulnerable). For Aironet 1850: versions 8.9(1.249), 8.9(1.255), 8.9(4.28), 8.9(4.41), 8.9(4.49), 8.9(4.55), 8.9(4.58), 8.9(104.24), 8.10(1.139), or 8.10(1.146) are affected
  3. Verify CAPWAP protocol is enabled
    Run 'show capwap summary' or 'show controller d0' on the AP CLI to confirm CAPWAP is active; CAPWAP is typically enabled by default on these APs for controller communication
    Affected if CAPWAP is enabled (this is the default operational mode for these APs)

If the device is an affected Aironet or Catalyst 9100 AP model running any firmware version (or a listed vulnerable 1850 version) with CAPWAP enabled, the environment is affected by this CVE.

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 appropriate Cisco firmware update when available. In the interim, consider network segmentation and access control lists to limit adjacent attacker reach to affected access points.

Fix this in Aironet 1540 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2019-15264 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
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  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data