Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers tmp Files Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers could allow an authenticated, local attacker to produce excessive tmp/*config files, causing the system to become unresponsive.

The vulnerability is due to the abrupt closure of the user’s vty sessions after the commit/end in global configuration mode. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using methods to generate excessive tmp/*config files, causing the affected system’s memory to be exhausted, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability and released software updates.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must authenticate and have local access to the targeted device. These access requirements may reduce 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.