Summary

• A vulnerability in the persistent Telnet/Secure Shell (SSH) CLI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain shell access on an affected device and execute commands on the underlying operating system (OS) with root privileges.

  The vulnerability is due to insufficient enforcement of the consent token in authorizing shell access. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the persistent Telnet/SSH CLI on an affected device and requesting shell access. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain shell access on the affected device and execute commands on the underlying OS with root privileges.

  Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

  This advisory is available at the following link:
  https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-ctbypass-7QHAfHkK

Affected Products

• Vulnerable Products

  At the time of publication, this vulnerability affected devices if they were running a vulnerable release of Cisco IOS XE Software and had the persistent Telnet or persistent SSH feature configured.

  For information about which Cisco software releases are vulnerable, see the Fixed Software section of this advisory.

  Determine the Device Configuration

  To determine whether the persistent Telnet feature is enabled for a device, administrators can log in to the device and use the show running-config | include transport type persistent telnet command in the CLI to check for the presence of the transport type persistent telnet input <name> command in the global configuration.

  To determine whether the persistent SSH feature is enabled for a device, administrators can log in to the device and use the show running-config | include transport type persistent ssh command in the CLI to check for the presence of the transport type persistent ssh input <name> command in the global configuration.

  If both commands return no output or an error message, persistent Telnet and persistent SSH are not configured on the device and it is not vulnerable.

  For information about which Cisco software releases are vulnerable, see the Fixed Software section of this advisory.

  Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable

  Only products listed in the Vulnerable Products section of this advisory are known to be affected by this vulnerability.

  Cisco has confirmed that this vulnerability does not affect the following Cisco products:

  • IOS Software
  • IOS XR Software
  • NX-OS Software

Workarounds

• There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

Fixed Software

• When considering software upgrades, customers are advised to regularly consult the advisories for Cisco products, which are available from the Cisco Security Advisories page, to determine exposure and a complete upgrade solution.

  In all cases, customers should ensure that the devices to be upgraded contain sufficient memory and confirm that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release. If the information is not clear, customers are advised to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or their contracted maintenance providers.

  Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software

  To help customers determine their exposure to vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software, Cisco provides the Cisco Software Checker to identify any Cisco Security Advisories that impact a specific software release and the earliest release that fixes the vulnerabilities described in each advisory (“First Fixed”). If applicable, the tool also returns the earliest release that fixes all the vulnerabilities described in all the advisories identified (“Combined First Fixed”).

  Customers can use the Cisco Software Checker to search advisories in the following ways:

  • Choose the software and one or more releases
  • Upload a .txt file that includes a list of specific releases
  • Enter the output of the show version command

  After initiating a search, customers can customize the search to include all Cisco Security Advisories, a specific advisory, or all advisories in the most recent bundled publication.

  Customers can also use the following form to determine whether a release is affected by any Cisco Security Advisory by entering a Cisco IOS or IOS XE Software release-for example, 15.1(4)M2 or 3.13.8S:

  By default, the Cisco Software Checker includes results only for vulnerabilities that have a Critical or High Security Impact Rating (SIR). To include results for Medium SIR vulnerabilities, customers can use the Cisco Software Checker on Cisco.com and check the Medium check box in the drop-down list under Impact Rating when customizing a search.

  For a mapping of Cisco IOS XE Software releases to Cisco IOS Software releases, refer to the Cisco IOS XE 2 Release Notes, Cisco IOS XE 3S Release Notes, or Cisco IOS XE 3SG Release Notes, depending on the Cisco IOS XE Software release.

Exploitation and Public Announcements

• The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.

Source

• This vulnerability was found by XB of Cisco ASIG during internal security testing.

URL

• https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-ctbypass-7QHAfHkK

Revision History

• Version	Description	Section	Status	Date
  1.0	Initial public release.	-	Final	2020-SEP-24

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