Alerts
Active Exploitation of Cisco Smart Install Client Vulnerability
21 August 2025
Cisco is aware of continued exploitation of a critical vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171) affecting the Cisco Smart Install Client.
Background
Cisco is aware of continued exploitation of a critical vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171) affecting the Cisco Smart Install Client.
Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code by sending a crafted Smart Install message to a vulnerable device on TCP port 4786.
Affected Products
Smart Install client switches that are running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS or IOS XE Software and have the Smart Install client feature enabled.
Only Smart Install client switches are affected by the vulnerability. Cisco devices that are configured as a Smart Install director are not affected.
Users and administrators can use the Cisco IOS Software Checker tool to determine if their product version is affected by this vulnerability.
Known Exploitation
This vulnerability is reported to be actively exploited in the wild.
Mitigation
Users and administrators of affected product versions are strongly advised to apply latest patches immediately.
References
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20180328-smi2