Cisco ONS 15454 System Software Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in Cisco ONS 15454 System Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the controller card on an affected device to reset, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

The vulnerability occurs because tNetTask CPU time is consumed when the software processes large amounts of IP or Ethernet traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending large amounts of IP or Ethernet traffic to the controller card on a targeted device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the controller card on the device to reset, resulting in a DoS condition.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability and released software updates.

To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must send large amounts of IP or Ethernet traffic to the targeted system, making exploitation more difficult in environments that restrict network access from untrusted sources.

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