Cisco IOS Software OSPF Opaque LSA Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the OSPF implementation of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a reload of the affected device.

The vulnerability is due to improper parsing of certain options in OSPF link-state advertisement (LSA) type 11 packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending LSA type 11 OSPF packets with unusual options set. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a reload of the affected device.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability in a security notice and released software updates.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be on the same broadcast or collision domain of a targeted device. This access requirement reduces the likelihood of a successful exploit.

Cisco indicates through the CVSS score that functional exploit code exists; however, the code is not known to be publicly available.