Privilege escalation in Cisco IOS and IOS XE

1) Active Debug Code

EUVDB-ID: #VU51765

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.5 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2021-1391

CWE-ID: CWE-489 - Active Debug Code

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to the presence of development testing and verification scripts that remained on the device in the dragonite debugger. A local administrator can bypass the consent token mechanism with the residual scripts on the affected device and escalate from privilege level 15 to root privilege.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Cisco Embedded Services 3300 Series Switches: All versions

Cisco Catalyst IE3200 Rugged Series: All versions

Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series: All versions

Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series: All versions

Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Series: All versions

Cisco IOS XE: before 17.4.1b

Cisco IOS: before 17.4.1b

External links

http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-XE-FSM-Yj8qJbJc

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected device in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.