A vulnerability in the Autonomic Networking Infrastructure (ANI) registrar feature of Cisco IOS Software (possibly 15.2 through 15.6) and Cisco IOS XE Software (possibly 3.7 through 3.18, and 16) could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation on certain crafted packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted autonomic network channel discovery packet to a device that has all the following characteristics: (1) running a Cisco IOS Software or Cisco IOS XE Software release that supports the ANI feature.

(2) configured as an autonomic registrar.

(3) has a whitelist configured. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the affected device to reload. Note: Autonomic networking should be configured with a whitelist. Do not remove the whitelist as a workaround. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvc42717.