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Two now-patched security flaws impacting Cisco Smart Licensing Utility are seeing active exploitation attempts, according to SANS Internet Storm Center . The two critical-rated vulnerabilities in question are listed below -  CVE-2024-20439 (CVSS score: 9.8) - The presence of an undocumented static user credential for an administrative account that an attacker could exploit to log in to an affected system CVE-2024-20440 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A vulnerability arising due to an excessively verbose debug log file that an attacker could exploit to access such files by means of a crafted HTTP request and obtain credentials that can be used to access the API Successful exploitation of the flaws could enable an attacker to log in to the affected system with administrative privileges, and obtain log files that contain sensitive data, including credentials that can be used to access the API. That said, the vulnerabilities are only exploitable in scenarios where the utility is active...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Monday added five security flaws impacting software from Cisco, Hitachi Vantara, Microsoft Windows, and Progress WhatsUp Gold to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2023-20118 (CVSS score: 6.5) - A command injection vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Small Business RV Series routers that allows an authenticated, remote attacker to gain root-level privileges and access unauthorized data (Unpatched due to the routers reaching end-of-life status) CVE-2022-43939 (CVSS score: 8.6) - An authorization bypass vulnerability in Hitachi Vantara Pentaho BA Server that stems from the use of non-canonical URL paths for authorization decisions (Fixed in August 2024 with versions 9.3.0.2 and 9.4.0.1) CVE-2022-43769 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A special element injection vulnerability in Hitachi Vantara...

Cisco has confirmed that a Chinese threat actor known as Salt Typhoon gained access by likely abusing a known security flaw tracked as CVE-2018-0171 , and by obtaining legitimate victim login credentials as part of a targeted campaign aimed at major U.S. telecommunications companies. "The threat actor then demonstrated their ability to persist in target environments across equipment from multiple vendors for extended periods, maintaining access in one instance for over three years," Cisco Talos said , describing the hackers as highly sophisticated and well-funded. "The long timeline of this campaign suggests a high degree of coordination, planning, and patience — standard hallmarks of advanced persistent threat (APT) and state-sponsored actors." The networking equipment major said it found no evidence that other known security bugs have been weaponized by the hacking crew, contrary to a recent report from Recorded Future that revealed exploitation attempts inv...

Cisco has released updates to address two critical security flaws Identity Services Engine (ISE) that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands and elevate privileges on susceptible devices. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2025-20124 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An insecure Java deserialization vulnerability in an API of Cisco ISE that could permit an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands as the root user on an affected device. CVE-2025-20125 (CVSS score: 9.1) - An authorization bypass vulnerability in an API of Cisco ISE could could permit an authenticated, remote attacker with valid read-only credentials to obtain sensitive information, change node configurations, and restart the node An attacker could weaponize either of the flaws by sending a crafted serialized Java object or an HTTP request to an unspecified API endpoint, leading to privilege escalation and code execution. Cisco said the two vulnerabilities are not dependent on...

Cisco has released software updates to address a critical security flaw impacting Meeting Management that could permit a remote, authenticated attacker to gain administrator privileges on susceptible instances. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-20156, carries a CVSS score of 9.9 out 10.0. It has been described as a privilege escalation flaw in the REST API of Cisco Meeting Management. "This vulnerability exists because proper authorization is not enforced upon REST API users," the company said in a Wednesday advisory. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending API requests to a specific endpoint." "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain administrator-level control over edge nodes that are managed by Cisco Meeting Management." The networking equipment major credited Ben Leonard-Lagarde of Modux for reporting the security shortcoming. It affects the following versions of the product irrespective of device configuratio...

Cisco on Monday updated an advisory to warn customers of active exploitation of a decade-old security flaw impacting its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA). The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2014-2120 (CVSS score: 4.3), concerns a case of insufficient input validation in ASA's WebVPN login page that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a targeted user of the appliance. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to access a malicious link," Cisco noted in an alert released in March 2014. As of December 2, 2024, the networking equipment major has revised its bulletin to note that it has become aware of "additional attempted exploitation" of the vulnerability in the wild. The development comes shortly after cybersecurity firm CloudSEK revealed that the threat actors behind AndroxGh0st are leveraging an extensive list of security vulnerabilities in various internet-faci...

Cisco has released security updates to address a maximum severity security flaw impacting Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul ( URWB ) Access Points that could permit unauthenticated, remote attackers to run commands with elevated privileges. Tracked as CVE-2024-20418 (CVS score: 10.0), the vulnerability has been described as stemming from a lack of input validation to the web-based management interface of the Cisco Unified Industrial Wireless Software. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to the web-based management interface of an affected system," Cisco said in an advisory released Wednesday. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the underlying operating system of the affected device." The shortcoming impacts following Cisco products in scenarios where the URWB operating mode is enabled - Catalyst IW9165D Heavy Duty Access Points Catalyst IW9165E Rugge...

Cisco has released security updates for two critical security flaws impacting its Smart Licensing Utility that could allow unauthenticated, remote attackers to elevate their privileges or access sensitive information. A brief description of the two vulnerabilities is below - CVE-2024-20439 (CVSS score: 9.8) - The presence of an undocumented static user credential for an administrative account that an attacker could exploit to log in to an affected system CVE-2024-20440 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A vulnerability arising due to an excessively verbose debug log file that an attacker could exploit to access such files by means of a crafted HTTP request and obtain credentials that can be used to access the API While these shortcomings are not dependent on each other for them to be successful, Cisco notes in its advisory that they "are not exploitable unless Cisco Smart Licensing Utility was started by a user and is actively running." The flaws, which were discovered during i...

Details have emerged about a China-nexus threat group's exploitation of a recently disclosed, now-patched security flaw in Cisco switches as a zero-day to seize control of the appliances and evade detection. The activity, attributed to Velvet Ant, was observed early this year and involved the weaponization of CVE-2024-20399 (CVSS score: 6.0) to deliver bespoke malware and gain extensive control over the compromised system, facilitating both data exfiltration and persistent access. "The zero-day exploit allows an attacker with valid administrator credentials to the Switch management console to escape the NX-OS command line interface (CLI) and execute arbitrary commands on the Linux underlying operating system," cybersecurity company Sygnia said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Velvet Ant first caught the attention of researchers at the Israeli cybersecurity company in connection with a multi-year campaign that targeted an unnamed organization located in Eas...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has disclosed that threat actors are abusing the legacy Cisco Smart Install ( SMI ) feature with the aim of accessing sensitive data. The agency said it has seen adversaries "acquire system configuration files by leveraging available protocols or software on devices, such as abusing the legacy Cisco Smart Install feature." It also said it continues to observe weak password types used on Cisco network devices, thereby exposing them to password-cracking attacks. Password types refer to algorithms that are used to secure a Cisco device's password within a system configuration file. Threat actors who are able to gain access to the device in this manner would be able to easily access system configuration files, facilitating a deeper compromise of the victim networks. "Organizations must ensure all passwords on network devices are stored using a sufficient level of protection," CISA said, adding it re...

Cisco has released patches to address a maximum-severity security flaw impacting Smart Software Manager On-Prem (Cisco SSM On-Prem) that could enable a remote, unauthenticated attacker to change the password of any users, including those belonging to administrative users. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-20419 , carries a CVSS score of 10.0. "This vulnerability is due to improper implementation of the password-change process," the company said in an advisory. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to access the web UI or API with the privileges of the compromised user." The shortcoming affects Cisco SSM On-Prem versions 8-202206 and earlier. It has been fixed in version 8-202212. It's worth noting that version 9 is not susceptible to the flaw. Cisco said there are no workarounds that resolve the issue, and that it's not aware of any malicio...

A new malware campaign leveraged two zero-day flaws in Cisco networking gear to deliver custom malware and facilitate covert data collection on target environments. Cisco Talos, which dubbed the activity  ArcaneDoor , attributed it as the handiwork of a previously undocumented sophisticated state-sponsored actor it tracks under the name UAT4356 (aka Storm-1849 by Microsoft). "UAT4356 deployed two backdoors as components of this campaign, 'Line Runner' and 'Line Dancer,' which were used collectively to conduct malicious actions on-target, which included configuration modification, reconnaissance, network traffic capture/exfiltration and potentially lateral movement," Talos  said . The intrusions, which were first detected and confirmed in early January 2024, entail the exploitation of  two vulnerabilities  - CVE-2024-20353  (CVSS score: 8.6) - Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Denial-of-Service Vulner...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday  added  a now-patched security flaw impacting Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) software to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, following reports that it's being likely exploited in Akira ransomware attacks. The vulnerability in question is  CVE-2020-3259  (CVSS score: 7.5), a high-severity information disclosure issue that could allow an attacker to retrieve memory contents on an affected device. It was  patched  by Cisco as part of updates released in May 2020. Late last month, cybersecurity firm Truesec said it found evidence suggesting that it has been weaponized by Akira ransomware actors to compromise multiple susceptible Cisco Anyconnect SSL VPN appliances over the past year. "There is no publicly available exploit code for [...] CVE-2020-3259, meaning that a threat actor, such as Akira, exploiting that vulnerabi...

Cisco has released patches to address a critical security flaw impacting Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions products that could permit an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected device. Tracked as  CVE-2024-20253  (CVSS score: 9.9), the issue stems from improper processing of user-provided data that a threat actor could abuse to send a specially crafted message to a listening port of a susceptible appliance. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with the privileges of the web services user," Cisco  said  in an advisory. "With access to the underlying operating system, the attacker could also establish root access on the affected device." Synacktiv security researcher Julien Egloff has been credited with discovering and reporting CVE-2024-20253. The following products are impacted by the flaw - Unified Communications Manager (versions 11...

Cisco has released software updates to address a critical security flaw impacting Unity Connection that could permit an adversary to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying system. Tracked as  CVE-2024-20272  (CVSS score: 7.3), the vulnerability is an arbitrary file upload bug residing in the web-based management interface and is the result of a lack of authentication in a specific API and improper validation of user-supplied data. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading arbitrary files to an affected system," Cisco  said  in an advisory released Wednesday. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to store malicious files on the system, execute arbitrary commands on the operating system, and elevate privileges to root." The flaw impacts the following versions of Cisco Unity Connection. Version 15 is not vulnerable. 12.5 and earlier (Fixed in version 12.5.1.19017-4) 14 (Fixed in version 14.0.1.14006-5) Security researcher Maxim ...

The backdoor implanted on Cisco devices by exploiting a pair of zero-day flaws in IOS XE software has been modified by the threat actor so as to escape visibility via previous fingerprinting methods. "Investigated network traffic to a compromised device has shown that the threat actor has upgraded the implant to do an extra header check," NCC Group's Fox-IT team  said . "Thus, for a lot of devices, the implant is still active, but now only responds if the correct Authorization HTTP header is set." The attacks entail fashioning  CVE-2023-20198  (CVSS score: 10.0) and  CVE-2023-20273  (CVSS score: 7.2) into an exploit chain that grants the threat actor the ability to gain access to the devices, create a privileged account, and ultimately deploy a Lua-based implant on the devices. The development comes as Cisco began rolling out security updates to  address the issues , with more updates to come at an as-yet-undisclosed date. The exact identity of the th...

Cisco has warned of a new zero-day flaw in IOS XE that has been actively exploited by an unknown threat actor to deploy a  malicious Lua-based implant  on susceptible devices. Tracked as  CVE-2023-20273  (CVSS score: 7.2), the issue relates to a privilege escalation flaw in the web UI feature and is said to have been used alongside CVE-2023-20198 (CVSS score: 10.0) as part of an exploit chain. "The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination," Cisco  said  in an updated advisory published Friday. "This allowed the user to log in with normal user access." "The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system," a shortcoming that has been assigned the identifier CVE-2023-20273. A Cisco spokesperson told The Hacker News that a fix that cove...

Cisco has warned of a critical, unpatched security flaw impacting IOS XE software that's under active exploitation in the wild. Rooted in the web UI feature, the zero-day vulnerability is tracked as  CVE-2023-20198  and has been assigned the maximum severity rating of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. It's worth pointing out that the shortcoming only affects enterprise networking gear that have the web UI feature enabled and when it's exposed to the internet or to untrusted networks. "This vulnerability allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to create an account on an affected system with privilege  level 15 access ," Cisco  said  in a Monday advisory. "The attacker can then use that account to gain control of the affected system." The problem impacts both physical and virtual devices running Cisco IOS XE software that also have the HTTP or HTTPS server feature enabled. As a mitigation, it's recommended to disable the HTTP server feature on internet-facin...

Cisco has released updates to address a critical security flaw impacting Emergency Responder that allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to sign into susceptible systems using hard-coded credentials. The vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2023-20101  (CVSS score: 9.8), is due to the presence of static user credentials for the root account that the company said is usually reserved for use during development. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the account to log in to an affected system," Cisco  said  in an advisory. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected system and execute arbitrary commands as the root user." The issue impacts Cisco Emergency Responder Release 12.5(1)SU4 and has been addressed in version 12.5(1)SU5. Other releases of the product are not impacted. The networking equipment major said it discovered the problem during internal security testing and that it's not aware of any malicious use of the vu...

Cisco is warning of attempted exploitation of a security flaw in its IOS Software and IOS XE Software that could permit an authenticated remote attacker to achieve remote code execution on affected systems. The medium-severity vulnerability is tracked as  CVE-2023-20109 , and has a CVSS score of 6.6. It impacts all versions of the software that have the GDOI or G-IKEv2 protocol enabled. The company  said  the shortcoming "could allow an authenticated, remote attacker who has administrative control of either a group member or a key server to execute arbitrary code on an affected device or cause the device to crash." It further noted that the issue is the result of insufficient validation of attributes in the Group Domain of Interpretation (GDOI) and G-IKEv2 protocols of the GET VPN feature and it could be weaponized by either compromising an installed key server or modifying the configuration of a group member to point to a key server that is controlled by the attacker...