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CVE-2018-0171

Critical 9.8 Exploited in the wild (KEV)

Confirmed active exploitation — CISA KEV catalog

Name
Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Smart Install Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Added to catalog
Remediation due date (US federal)
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Description

A vulnerability in the Smart Install feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to trigger a reload of an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition, or to execute arbitrary code on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of packet data. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted Smart Install message to an affected device on TCP port 4786. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a buffer overflow on the affected device, which could have the following impacts: Triggering a reload of the device, Allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device, Causing an indefinite loop on the affected device that triggers a watchdog crash. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvg76186.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
9.8 (CRITICAL) Score source: NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS — exploit probability
99% (percentile: 100) as of 1 November 2026
CWE
CWE-20, CWE-787

Affected products

cisco: ios

References