high Known exploitedREV. 01

CVE-2016-6415Cisco — key exchange requests that return memory

A security negotiation request to the key exchange server in Cisco's router software returns pieces of device memory. It spans a wide range of releases, and the leak was tooled well enough to earn a codename (BENIGNCERTAIN).

YOUR NEXT MOVE

Move the device to a fixed release, and restrict which addresses may begin a key exchange — what comes back is whatever the device happened to have in memory.

Read the risk

THE VITAL STATS
CVSS score
7.5/ 10
CVSS v3.1
EPSS probability
88%
Likelihood of exploitation
Attack complexity
Low
Conditions needed to exploit
Known exploited
Yes — CISA KEV
CVE published
2016-09-19
Added to KEV
2023-05-19
Exploit published
Not recorded
Confidence
high
Kill chain
collection
MITRE ATT&CK
—
Severity
high

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Attacker needsNetwork access to the device's key exchange service.

Behind the card

5 REFERENCES
Field-level provenanceTRACE THE SOURCES +

Which source supports each field, when it was retrieved, and who extracted it.

FieldsSourceRetrievedExtractorConfidence
cvss, exploitation.attack_complexity, exploitation.exploit_available, references, published_atnvd.nist.gov2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
exploitation.known_exploited, exploitation.kev_addedcisa.gov2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
epssapi.first.org2026-09-24scrty-crds-pipeline/0.1high
title, summary, severity, remediation, mitre_attack, kill_chain, recommended_action, confidence, tags, exploitation.prerequisitesnvd.nist.gov2026-09-24claude-codehigh

Printing history

THE RECORD
  1. r1Initial base card

First printing. This card has not been reprinted since publication.

crds:cve-2016-6415 · CRDS 0.1 · Issued 2026-09-24