Cisco Email Security Appliance URL Filtering Denial of Service Vulnerability
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
A vulnerability in the email message filtering feature of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Email Security Appliances (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the CPU utilization to increase to 100 percent, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper filtering of email messages that contain references to whitelisted URLs. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious email message that contains a large number of whitelisted URLs. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a sustained DoS condition that could force the affected device to stop scanning and forwarding email messages.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco | Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) VendorCisco Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2018-15460
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-q66v-34fh-vw9m
References
More Cisco Asyncos vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-74174 Arbitrary file write in Cisco Secure Email Gateway via AMP feature KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-53489 Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2025-14683 Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Remote Command Execution Vulnerability KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2021-13698 Cisco Web Security Appliance Proxy Service Denial of Service Vulnerability CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
- TI-2019-01567 Cisco Email Security Appliance Denial of Service Vulnerability CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
- TI-2019-01508 Cisco Web Security Appliance HTTPS Certificate Denial of Service Vulnerability CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
Sources
- CVE-2018-15460 · CVE Program
- CVE-2018-15460 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-q66v-34fh-vw9m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences