CVE-2018-21214

Vulnerability

A pre-authentication buffer overflow vulnerability exists in several NETGEAR devices, including D3600 (before 1.0.0.67), D6000 (before 1.0.0.67), EX2700 (before 1.0.1.28), R6100 (before 1.0.1.20), R7500v2 (before 1.0.3.24), R9000 (before 1.0.2.52), WN2000RPTv3 (before 1.0.1.20), WN3000RPv3 (before 1.0.2.50), and WN3100RPv2 (before 1.0.0.56) [1]. The flaw is triggered without authentication, requiring only network adjacency.

Exploitation

An attacker on the local network (adjacent) can exploit the buffer overflow by sending a crafted packet to the vulnerable device [1]. No authentication or user interaction is required, making the attack remotely exploitable from the same broadcast domain.

Impact

Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution or denial of service, with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability [1]. The CVSS v3 score is 8.8 (High), with the vector AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H [1].

Mitigation

NETGEAR has released fixed firmware versions for all affected models. Users should upgrade to the latest firmware as specified in the advisory [1]. No workarounds are provided; the only mitigation is to apply the firmware update.