CVE-2018-0176: Cisco IOS XE

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Multiple vulnerabilities in the CLI parser of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain access to the underlying Linux shell of an affected device and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the device. The vulnerabilities are due to the affected software improperly sanitizing command arguments to prevent access to internal data structures on a device. An attacker who has user EXEC mode (privilege level 1) access to an affected device could exploit these vulnerabilities on the device by executing CLI commands that contain crafted arguments. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain access to the underlying Linux shell of the affected device and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the device. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCtw85441, CSCus42252, CSCuv95370.

Affected products

• Cisco IOS XE: version 15.0(5.59)emd only; version 16.1(0) only; version 16.2(0) only

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