Cybersecurity professionals consider CVE-2019-15989 an immediate threat requiring urgent mitigation.
Status: Analyzed
Last updated: 🕢 29 Jan 2020, 19:46 UTC
Originally published on: 🕔 26 Jan 2020, 05:15 UTC
Time between publication and last update: 3 days
CVSS Release: version 3
nvd@nist.gov
Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVE-2019-15989: A vulnerability in the implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) functionality in Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of a BGP update message that contains a specific BGP attribute. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending BGP update messages that include a specific, malformed attribute to be processed by an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the BGP process to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition. The Cisco implementation of BGP accepts incoming BGP traffic only from explicitly defined peers. To exploit this vulnerability, the malicious BGP update message would need to come from a configured, valid BGP peer or would need to be injected by the attacker into the victim’s BGP network on an existing, valid TCP connection to a BGP peer.
The exploitability of CVE-2019-15989 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
With low attack complexity and no required privileges, CVE-2019-15989 is an easy target for cybercriminals. Organizations should prioritize immediate mitigation measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2019-15989, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2019-15989, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.
EPSS Score: 0.16% (probability of exploit)
EPSS Percentile: 53.85%
(lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 46.15% of others.
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