CVE-2018-15390
Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software FTP Inspection Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software fails to release spinlocks when a device is running low on system memory, if the software is configured to apply FTP inspection and an access control rule to transit traffic, and the access control rule is associated with an FTP file policy. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of transit traffic through an affected device to cause a low-memory condition on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a software panic on the affected device, which could cause the device to reload and result in a temporary DoS condition.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
6.8
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software fails to release spinlocks when a device is running low on system memory, if the software is configured to apply FTP inspection and an access control rule to transit traffic, and the access control rule is associated with an FTP file policy. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of transit traffic through an affected device to cause a low-memory condition on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a software panic on the affected device, which could cause the device to reload and result in a temporary DoS condition.
- Record
CVE-2018-15390- CVSS 3.1
- 6.8 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.1 High
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C - Weakness
- CWE-399, CWE-667
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software FTP Inspection Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software fails to release spinlocks when a device is running low on system memory, if the software is configured to apply FTP inspection and an access control rule to transit traffic, and the access control rule is associated with an FTP file policy. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of transit traffic through an affected device to cause a low-memory condition on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a software panic on the affected device, which could cause the device to reload and result in a temporary DoS condition.
- Record
CVE-2018-15390- Weakness
- CWE-399
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2018-7268 No score
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software fails to release spinlocks when a device is running low on system memory, if the software is configured to apply FTP inspection and an access control rule to transit traffic, and the access control rule is associated with an FTP file policy. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of transit traffic through an affected device to cause a low-memory condition on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a software panic on the affected device, which could cause the device to reload and result in a temporary DoS condition.
- Record
EUVD-2018-7268- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-2wx9-x824-p464
6.8
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software...
A vulnerability in the FTP inspection engine of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software fails to release spinlocks when a device is running low on system memory, if the software is configured to apply FTP inspection and an access control rule to transit traffic, and the access control rule is associated with an FTP file policy. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of transit traffic through an affected device to cause a low-memory condition on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a software panic on the affected device, which could cause the device to reload and result in a temporary DoS condition.
- Record
GHSA-2wx9-x824-p464- CVSS 3.1
- 6.8 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-667
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2018-15390 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.8) in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software, published October 5, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.12%, the 66th percentile. No source names a fixed version.