Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2019-1918 is a Cisco IOS XR denial-of-service issue in IS-IS routing. An attacker inside the same IS-IS area could disrupt routing calculations, fill logs with tracebacks, or crash the IS-IS process, affecting network availability.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority for networks depending on Cisco IOS XR and IS-IS for core routing. The business risk is routing instability or outage, not data theft. Prioritize validation on backbone, service-provider, and high-availability environments.
Technical view
Cisco describes incorrect processing of IS-IS link-state PDUs in IOS XR Software. The issue can affect weighted remote SRLG or IGP Flexible Algorithm calculations and may crash the IS-IS process. CVSS 3.0 is 7.4 with adjacent attack vector, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on Cisco IOS XR routers running IS-IS where an untrusted or compromised system can participate in the same IS-IS area. Affected versions are unspecified in the provided bundle.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or other evidence of active exploitation. Exploitation requires adjacency within the same IS-IS area, which limits internet-scale exposure but matters in carrier, backbone, and large enterprise routing domains.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record and Cisco advisory reference in the bundle. The weakness is CWE-20 input validation, affecting IS-IS link-state PDU handling. Do not assume affected releases, fixes, or exploitation beyond the provided Cisco source.
Mitigation direction
- Check Cisco’s advisory for affected and fixed IOS XR releases.
- Upgrade or apply vendor-recommended remediation where applicable.
- Restrict IS-IS participation to trusted routing devices only.
- Review routing-domain segmentation and control-plane protections.
- Monitor IOS XR logs for IS-IS tracebacks or process restarts.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco IOS XR devices running IS-IS.
- Compare installed IOS XR versions against Cisco’s advisory.
- Identify interfaces participating in each IS-IS area.
- Review logs for IS-IS tracebacks, crashes, or unexplained restarts.
- Confirm whether weighted remote SRLG or IGP Flexible Algorithm is in use.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-20: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2019-1918 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.4 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H2.84Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
7.4HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20190807 Cisco IOS XR Software Intermediate System–to–Intermediate System Denial of Service VulnerabilityCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
