Cisco Warns of Attackers Targeting High Severity Router vulnerability

Cisco warns of high severity flaw Cisco Discovery Protocol implementation for Cisco IOS XR Software that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the affected device.

Cisco IOS XR is a modern network OS to simplify your network with a flexible, modular design that uses less memory, boots up faster, and can be loaded into a core or access-level device.

Cisco IOS XR Software Vulnerability

The vulnerability is due to improper validation of string input from certain fields in the Cisco Discovery Protocol messages.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious Cisco Discovery Protocol packet to an affected device.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability allows attackers to cause a stack overflow, that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges on an affected device.

The vulnerability affects all the Cisco and other third-party white box router products that have Cisco Discovery Protocol enabled both globally and on at least one interface.

  • ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
  • Carrier Routing System (CRS)
  • IOS XRv 9000 Router
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 540 Series Routers
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 560 Series Routers
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 1000 Series Routers
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 5000 Series Routers
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 5500 Series Routers
  • Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers

“Cisco has confirmed that this vulnerability does not affect the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 520 Series Routers.”

There are no workarounds available, if you are not using the Cisco Discovery Protocol feature then you can disable it.

Cisco released free software updates that address the vulnerability described in this advisory, users are recommended to update with the new version.

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Cisco Warns Hackers Actively Exploited Bug in Carrier-grade Routers

Gurubaran

Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

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