CVE-2018-15453: cisco cisco email security appliance (esa) Improper Input Validation

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2018-15453 is a high (CVSS 8.6) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in cisco cisco email security appliance (esa). EPSS estimates a 2.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 10-01-2019
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 19-11-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A vulnerability in the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) Decryption and Verification or S/MIME Public Key Harvesting features of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to corrupt system memory. A successful exploit could cause the filtering process to unexpectedly reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition on the device. The vulnerability is due to improper input validation of S/MIME-signed emails. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious S/MIME-signed email through a targeted device. If Decryption and Verification or Public Key Harvesting is configured, the filtering process could crash due to memory corruption and restart, resulting in a DoS condition. The software could then resume processing the same S/MIME-signed email, causing the filtering process to crash and restart again. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a permanent DoS condition. This vulnerability may require manual intervention to recover the ESA.

• CWE-20Improper Input ValidationThe product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.
• CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteThe product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.