Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in the connection-handling mechanism of Cisco Crosswork Network Controller (CNC) and Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO). It is caused by an inadequate implementation of rate-limiting on incoming network connections.

An unauthenticated, remote attacker can exploit this by sending a large number of connection requests to the affected system, which can exhaust the system's available connection resources.

As a result, the affected Cisco CNC and Cisco NSO systems become unresponsive, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition that affects legitimate users and dependent services.

Recovery from this condition requires a manual reboot of the system.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by causing a denial of service (DoS) condition on systems running Cisco Crosswork Network Controller (CNC) and Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO).

An attacker can remotely and without authentication exhaust connection resources by flooding the system with connection requests, making the system unresponsive.

This unresponsiveness disrupts legitimate user access and dependent services, potentially causing operational downtime.

Additionally, recovery requires a manual reboot, which may increase system downtime and operational impact.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, you should limit the rate of incoming network connections to the affected Cisco Crosswork Network Controller and Cisco Network Services Orchestrator systems to prevent resource exhaustion.

Since the vulnerability allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause a denial of service by exhausting connection resources, monitoring and controlling connection attempts can help reduce the risk.

If a DoS condition occurs, a manual reboot of the affected system is required to recover.

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability described causes a denial of service (DoS) condition by exhausting connection resources, but it does not directly impact the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data in a way that would specifically affect compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA.

However, a DoS condition could indirectly affect compliance by disrupting availability requirements mandated by such regulations, since legitimate users and dependent services become unresponsive until a manual reboot is performed.

There is no explicit information provided about direct compliance impacts or data breaches related to this vulnerability.

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