HighCVE-2002-20001

    F5 BIG-IP: security vulnerability (CVE-2002-20001)

    Published Last modified Sources: Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol allows remote attackers (from the client side) to send arbitrary numbers that are actually not public keys, and trigger expensive server-side DHE modular-exponentiation calculations, aka a D(HE)at or D(HE)ater attack. The client needs very little CPU resources and network bandwidth.

    Update F5 BIG-IP to version 16.1.4, F5 BIG-IP to version 17.1.0, HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) to version 10.06.0180.

    Affected
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eq 11..11
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eq 12..12
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eq 15..15
    • F5 BIG-IP lt 13.1.0..16.1.4
    • F5 BIG-IP lt 17.0.0..17.1.0
    • F5 BIG-IP lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF) Big-ip Advanced Web Application Firewall lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF) Big-ip Advanced Web Application Firewall eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Analytics lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Analytics eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 Big-ip Application Acceleration Manager lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 Big-ip Application Acceleration Manager eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • BIG-IP (ASM) lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • BIG-IP (ASM) eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Application Visibility and Reporting (AVR) Big-ip Application Visibility And Reporting lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Application Visibility and Reporting (AVR) Big-ip Application Visibility And Reporting eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) Big-ip Carrier-grade Nat lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) Big-ip Carrier-grade Nat eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP DDoS Hybrid Defender (DDHD) lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP DDoS Hybrid Defender (DDHD) eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Fraud Protection Service (FPS) lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Fraud Protection Service (FPS) eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM) lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM) eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Link Controller lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Link Controller eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 Big-ip Local Traffic Manager lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 Big-ip Local Traffic Manager eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM) lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM) eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 Big-ip Service Proxy eq 1.6.0..1.6.0
    • F5 BIG-IP WebAccelerator lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP WebAccelerator eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IP WebSafe lte 13.1.0..17.1.2
    • F5 BIG-IP WebSafe eq 17.5.0..17.5.0
    • F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management lte 8.0.0..8.4.0
    • F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management eq 7.1.0..7.1.0
    • F5 Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller (SDC) eq 5.1.0..5.1.0
    • F5 Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller (SDC) eq 5.2.0..5.2.0
    • F5OS-A lte 1.3.0..1.3.2
    • F5OS-A lte 1.5.0..1.5.3
    • F5OS-A eq 1.8.0..1.8.0
    • F5OS-C lte 1.3.0..1.3.2
    • F5OS-C lte 1.6.0..1.6.2
    • F5OS-C eq 1.5.0..1.5.0
    • F5OS-C eq 1.5.1..1.5.1
    • F5OS-C eq 1.8.0..1.8.0
    • F5OS-C eq 1.8.1..1.8.1
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) lt 10.06.0000..10.06.0180
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) lt 10.07.0000..10.07.0030
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) lt 10.08.0000..10.08.0010
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) lt 10.09.0000..10.09.0002
    • Stormshield Management Center lt *..3.3.3
    • Stormshield Network Security lt 2.7.0..4.3.16
    • Stormshield Network Security lt 4.4.0..4.6.3
    Fixed in
    • F5 BIG-IP 16.1.4
    • F5 BIG-IP 17.1.0
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) 10.06.0180
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) 10.07.0030
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) 10.08.0010
    • HPE ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX) 10.09.0002
    • Stormshield Management Center 3.3.3
    • Stormshield Network Security 4.3.16
    • Stormshield Network Security 4.6.3

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    Metrics

    7.5

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.5

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org

    24.6 %

    EPSS score

    Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 97.9

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    High
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    114.14 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.5 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.5
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    24.6 %
    Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    97.9
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol allows remote attackers (from the client side) to send arbitrary numbers that are actually not public keys, and trigger expensive server-side DHE modular-exponentiation calculations, aka a D(HE)at or D(HE)ater attack. The client needs very little CPU resources and network bandwidth. The attack may be more disruptive in cases where a client can require a server to select its largest supported key size. The basic attack scenario is that the client must claim that it can only communicate with DHE, and the server must be configured to allow DHE.

    Source: siemens_advisory, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    balasysdheater
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_access_policy_manager
    • 17.0.0 – < 17.1.0
    • 13.1.0 – < 16.1.4
    • 17.1.0
    • 16.1.4
    f5big-ip_advanced_firewall_manager
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_advanced_web_application_firewall
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_analytics
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_application_acceleration_manager
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_application_security_manager
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_application_visibility_and_reporting
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_carrier-grade_nat
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_ddos_hybrid_defender
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_domain_name_system
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_edge_gateway
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_fraud_protection_service
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_global_traffic_manager
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_link_controller
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • 17.5.0
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_local_traffic_manager
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_policy_enforcement_manager
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_service_proxy
    • 1.6.0
    • —
    f5big-ip_ssl_orchestrator
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_webaccelerator
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-ip_websafe
    • 17.5.0
    • 13.1.0 – ≤ 17.1.2
    • —
    • —
    f5big-iq_centralized_management
    • 8.0.0 – ≤ 8.4.0
    • 7.1.0
    • —
    • —
    f5traffix_signaling_delivery_controller
    • 5.1.0
    • 5.2.0
    • —
    • —
    stormshieldstormshield_management_center
    • < 3.3.3
    • 3.3.3
    stormshieldstormshield_network_security
    • 2.7.0 – < 4.3.16
    • 4.4.0 – < 4.6.3
    • 4.3.16
    • 4.6.3

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_server11
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_server12
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_server15
    Otherhpearubaos-cx—
    Otherf5f5os-a1.8.0
    Otherf5f5os-a—
    Otherf5f5os-c1.5.0
    Otherf5f5os-c1.5.1
    Otherf5f5os-c1.8.0
    Otherf5f5os-c1.8.1
    Otherf5f5os-c—
    Othersiemensscalance_w1750d_firmware—

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    One NVD translation into another language is hidden.

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