CiscoWorks Common Services for Solaris and Windows could allow unauthenticated admin access
Cisco this week issued a security advisory for its CiscoWorks management software. CiscoWorks Common Services for both Oracle Solaris and Microsoft Windows contains a vulnerability that could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a host device with privileges of a system administrator, the Cisco advisory states.
CiscoWorks Common Services versions 3.0.5 and later are affected by this vulnerability. Versions 4.0 and later contain a fix, and products that use CiscoWorks Common Services versions prior to 3.0.5
are not vulnerable.
Cisco says it has issued free software updates to address the vulnerability. There are no workarounds, the company states in the advisory.
CiscoWorks Common Services is software that allows CiscoWorks management applications to share a common model for data storage, login, user role definitions, access privileges, security protocols, and navigation. It creates a standard user experience, a common foundation, for all management functions.
The software, however, contains exploitable buffer overflows in the authentication code in its web server module. A successful exploit could cause the web server to crash or allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the server. Any code would execute with system administrative privileges, the advisory warns.The vulnerability could be exploited over TCP port 443 or 1741.Though there are no workarounds, Cisco says in the advisory that filters such as transit access control lists can be used to allow access to the Administration Workstation only from trusted
hosts. This limits the attack surface of the vulnerability, the advisory states.
Other mitigations can be found here.
Cisco said it is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability. It was discovered while handling customer support calls, the company says.
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