Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches IPsec Tunnel Handling Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) subsystem of the Cisco WS-IPSEC-3 service module could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of the Catalyst switch.

The vulnerability is due to insufficient bounds checks on a specific message during the establishment of an IPsec tunnel. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by establishing an IKE session and sending the offending packet during subsequent negotiations. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a denial of service by forcibly reloading the switch.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability; however, software updates are not available.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must authenticate to the targeted device. This access requirement decreases the likelihood of a successful exploit.