CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2017-12239 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

A vulnerability in motherboard console ports of line cards for Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers and Cisco cBR-8 Converged Broadband Routers could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to access an affected device's operating system. The vulnerability exists because an engineering console port is available on the motherboard of the affected line cards. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by physically connecting to the console port on the line card. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain full access to the affected device's operating system. This vulnerability affects only Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers that have removable line cards and Cisco cBR-8 Converged Broadband Routers, if they are running certain Cisco IOS XE 3.16 through 16.5 releases. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc65866, CSCve77132.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (2.0)
Published
2017-09-29
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-264, CWE-798

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.0as
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.0s
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.1s
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.2as
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.2s
  • cisco / ios_xe / 3.13.3s

Showing 6 representative product identities from 74 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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