Cisco Flaw Let Attackers Run Command as Root User

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in Cisco Unified Industrial Wireless Software, which affects Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) Access Points.

This flaw tracked as CVE-2024-20418 enables unauthenticated, remote attackers to perform command injection attacks and execute arbitrary commands as the root user on the underlying operating system of the affected devices.

Vulnerability Details – CVE-2024-20418

The vulnerability arises due to improper input validation within the web-based management interface of the affected systems.

Exploiting this flaw is relatively straightforward: attackers only need to send specially crafted HTTP requests to the web interface to gain root-level access. 

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Given its high severity, the flaw has been assigned the maximum CVSS score of 10.0, indicating the critical nature of the vulnerability. The vulnerability affects multiple products, including:

• Cisco Catalyst IW9165D Heavy-Duty Access Points
• Cisco Catalyst IW9165E Rugged Access Points and Wireless Clients
• Cisco Catalyst IW9167E Heavy-Duty Access Points

These devices are vulnerable if running a susceptible software version with the URWB operating mode enabled.

Cisco has released software patches to mitigate the issue, and users are encouraged to update to the latest software versions immediately. Unfortunately, Cisco has confirmed that no workarounds are available for this vulnerability.

Cisco users can determine if their device is vulnerable by using the “show mpls-config” CLI command.

If this command is available, it indicates that the URWB operating mode is enabled, and the device is likely affected. If the command is unavailable, the URWB mode is disabled, and the device is not at risk.

This flaw has the potential to compromise a full system. Therefore, organizations using the affected Cisco products are urged to prioritize patching their systems to avoid being targeted by attackers.

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