CVE-2018-0156 Cisco CVE debrief

Who should care

Organizations running Cisco IOS Software or Cisco IOS XE Software, especially teams responsible for network infrastructure, perimeter devices, and environments where Smart Install may be in use or reachable.

Technical summary

The public record identifies a Smart Install flaw in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software that can be used to cause denial of service. The CISA KEV catalog lists the vulnerability as known exploited and points defenders to vendor-provided updates as the remediation path.

Defensive priority

Urgent. This CVE is on CISA’s KEV catalog, with a due date of 2022-03-17 in the supplied timeline, so remediation should be prioritized immediately for affected Cisco devices.

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply Cisco updates per vendor instructions as directed by the CISA KEV entry.
• Inventory Cisco IOS and IOS XE devices to determine whether they are affected by CVE-2018-0156.
• Prioritize remediation for internet-facing and business-critical network devices.
• Verify that the updated software is deployed successfully and document completion.
• Monitor affected devices for service disruption or abnormal restart behavior while remediation is underway.

Evidence notes

The supplied corpus includes the CISA KEV entry for this CVE, which states the vulnerability name, lists Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software as the affected product family, and gives the required action: "Apply updates per vendor instructions." The corpus also supplies official CVE.org and NVD records as supporting reference links. No CVSS score was provided in the supplied data.

Official resources