# CVE-2017-12238: Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches VPLS Denial-of-Service Vulnerability

> CVE-2017-12238: Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches VPLS Denial-of-Service Vulnerability. CVSS 6.5 (CVSS 3.1), in CISA KEV.

Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2017-12238
Last updated: 2026-01-12T21:46:19Z

- Published: 2017-09-28 07:00 UTC · Updated: 2026-01-12 21:46 UTC · Assigner: cisco
- CVSS: 6.5 (CVSS 3.1) · Severity: Medium · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS: 2.0%, 81th percentile (scored 2026-10-25)
- CISA KEV: yes, added 2022-03-03, federal due date 2022-03-24, ransomware use: Unknown
- CWE: CWE-399

## Description

A vulnerability in the Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) code of Cisco IOS 15.0 through 15.4 for Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to a memory management issue in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a large number of VPLS-generated MAC entries in the MAC address table of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL type line card to crash, resulting in a DoS condition. This vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches that are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS Software and have a Cisco C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card in use with Supervisor Engine 6T. To be vulnerable, the device must also be configured with VPLS and the C6800-16P10G or C6800-16P10G-XL line card needs to be the core-facing MPLS interfaces. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCva61927.

## CISA required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

## Affected vendors and products

- n/a: Cisco IOS

## References

- [CVE record on cve.org](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-12238)
- [NVD entry](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12238)
- [https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vpls](https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170927-vpls)
- [http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101040](http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101040)
- [http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039453](http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039453)

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_Sources: CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (https://www.cve.org/) This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (https://nvd.nist.gov/) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (https://www.first.org/epss/)_


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Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2017-12238 · Markdown: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2017-12238.md · JSON: https://rewindex.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2017-12238 · Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Generated 2026-10-26T01:59:18.588Z