Cisco Aironet 1560, 1800, 2800, and 3800 Series Access Points Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Cisco Aironet Series Access Points (APs) software could allow an authenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a deadlock condition that may occur when an affected AP attempts to dequeue aggregated traffic that is destined to an attacker-controlled wireless client. An attacker who can successfully transition between multiple Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) hosted on the same AP while replicating the required traffic patterns could trigger the deadlock condition. A watchdog timer that detects the condition will trigger a reload of the device, resulting in a DoS condition while the device restarts.
- Published
- Oct 17, 2018
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.5% · 43th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-400
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Report tools
Action score
27
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 27 / 40 · 6.8 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.5%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 6.8
- CNA · cisco
- 5.8
- 1.0 point gap
CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpAffected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| cisco | aironet access points | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:aironet_access_points |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- cisco aironet access points8.2(166.0)
- cisco aironet access points8.2(167.3)
- cisco aironet access points8.3(133.0)
- cisco aironet access points8.3(141.10)
- cisco aironet access points8.5(120.0)
- cisco aironet access points8.7(1.107)
- cisco aironet access points8.7(1.96)
- cisco aironet access points8.7(1.99)
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
Cisco Cisco Aironet Access Points
- 8.2, 8.3, 8.5, 8.7affected
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone on the same network segment can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- none
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).
- Attack vector
- Adjacent
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality impact
- None
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
nvd-primary
Root cause
Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-400 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
function expand(node) { return node.children.map(expand);}Fixed
const MAX_DEPTH = 32;function expand(node, depth = 0) { if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep"); return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));}Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Change log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
- www.securityfocus.com/bid/105685
- www.securitytracker.com/id/1041929
- tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20181017-aironet-dos
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.