CVE-2017-5495

CVE-2017-5495 is a high-severity vulnerability in Quagga with a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score of 19% places it in the 97th percentile, indicating an elevated likelihood of exploitation. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-119.

Key facts

Description

All versions of Quagga, 0.93 through 1.1.0, are vulnerable to an unbounded memory allocation in the telnet 'vty' CLI, leading to a Denial-of-Service of Quagga daemons, or even the entire host. When Quagga daemons are configured with their telnet CLI enabled, anyone who can connect to the TCP ports can trigger this vulnerability, prior to authentication. Most distributions restrict the Quagga telnet interface to local access only by default. The Quagga telnet interface 'vty' input buffer grows automatically, without bound, so long as a newline is not entered. This allows an attacker to cause the Quagga daemon to allocate unbounded memory by sending very long strings without a newline. Eventually the daemon is terminated by the system, or the system itself runs out of memory. This is fixed in Quagga 1.1.1 and Free Range Routing (FRR) Protocol Suite 2017-01-10.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-5495?
All versions of Quagga, 0.93 through 1.1.0, are vulnerable to an unbounded memory allocation in the telnet 'vty' CLI, leading to a Denial-of-Service of Quagga daemons, or even the entire host. When Quagga daemons are configured with their telnet CLI enabled, anyone who can connect to the TCP ports can trigger this vulnerability, prior to authentication. Most distributions restrict the Quagga telnet interface to local access only by default. The Quagga telnet interface 'vty' input buffer grows automatically, without bound, so long as a newline is not entered. This allows an attacker to cause the Quagga daemon to allocate unbounded memory by sending very long strings without a newline. Eventually the daemon is terminated by the system, or the system itself runs out of memory. This is fixed in Quagga 1.1.1 and Free Range Routing (FRR) Protocol Suite 2017-01-10.
How severe is CVE-2017-5495?
CVE-2017-5495 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5, rated high severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2017-5495 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 19% (97th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2017-5495?
CVE-2017-5495 affects Quagga. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2017-5495?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2017-5495 published?
CVE-2017-5495 was published on 2017-01-24 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

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