CVE-2018-0158: Cisco IOS and XE Software Internet Key Exchange Memory Leak Vulnerability

High severity, CVSS 8.6. Actively exploited: in CISA KEV since 2022-03-03. EPSS: 7.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2) module of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a memory leak or a reload of an affected device that leads to a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of certain IKEv2 packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted IKEv2 packets to an affected device to be processed. A successful exploit could cause an affected device to continuously consume memory and eventually reload, resulting in a DoS condition. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvf22394.

Affected products

• Cisco IOS: version 15.5(3)s1.1 only; version 15.5(3)s1.2 only; version 15.5(3)s1.4 only; version 15.5(3)s1.5 only; version 15.5(3)s1.7 only; version 15.5(3)s1.8 only; …
• Cisco IOS XE: version 15.5(3)s1.1 only; version 15.5(3)s1.2 only; version 15.5(3)s1.4 only; version 15.5(3)s1.5 only; version 15.5(3)s1.7 only; version 15.5(3)s1.8 only; …

Published 2018-03-28. Last modified 2026-06-17.