{"id":"CVE-2018-15453","aliases":["EUVD-2018-7331","GHSA-62wx-gppg-6grr"],"status":"published","title":"Cisco Email Security Appliance Memory Corruption Denial of Service Vulnerability","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.","severity":{"version":"3.0","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.02287,"percentile":0.83311,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-20","CWE-787"],"published":"2019-01-10T18:00:00Z","modified":"2026-06-17T01:42:32Z","products":[{"vendor":"cisco","product":"cisco email security appliance (esa)"},{"vendor":"cisco","product":"email_security_appliance_firmware"}],"references":[{"url":"https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20190109-esa-dos","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_CISCO","x_transferred","Vendor Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106511","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_BID","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15453"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-62wx-gppg-6grr"}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2018-15453","title":"Cisco Email Security Appliance Memory Corruption Denial of Service Vulnerability","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.","status":"published","published":"2019-01-10T18:00:00Z","modified":"2024-11-19T19:18:36.642Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.0","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:35:03.825765Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2018-7331","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.","status":"published","published":"2019-01-10T18:00:00Z","modified":"2024-11-19T19:18:36Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.0","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-03T00:04:55.23264Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-62wx-gppg-6grr","title":"A vulnerability in the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) Decryption and...","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.","status":"published","published":"2022-05-13T01:16:15Z","modified":"2023-02-01T05:04:55Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-787"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:50:11.93472Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2018-15453","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.","status":"published","published":"2019-01-10T18:29:00.5Z","modified":"2026-06-17T01:42:32.053Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"},{"version":"3.0","score":8.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"2.0","score":7.8,"vector":"AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-20","CWE-787"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:04:53.079938Z"}]}}