[c-nsp] Cisco Security Advisory: Cisco Intrusion Prevention System Vulnerable to Privilege Escalation

Mon Aug 22 13:00:00 EDT 2005

Cisco Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) are a family of network
security devices that provide network based threat prevention services.

A user with OPERATOR or VIEWER access privileges may be able to exploit
a vulnerability in the command line processing (CLI) logic to gain full
administrative control of the IPS device.

Cisco has made free software available to address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20050824-ips.shtml

Affected Products
=================

Vulnerable Products
+------------------

Cisco Intrusion Prevention System version 5.0(1) and 5.0(2).

Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable
+--------------------------------

Any Cisco Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) or IPS version 4.x and
earlier.

Details
=======

A user with OPERATOR or VIEWER access privileges may be able to exploit
a vulnerability in the command line processing logic to gain full
administrative control of the IPS device. OPERATOR and VIEWER accounts
are normally non-privileged accounts used for monitoring and
troubleshooting purposes.

This vulnerability is documented in the Cisco Bug Toolkit as Bug ID 
CSCsb16527. 

Impact
======

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability grants an attacker full
control of the IPS Device.

With full administrative access, an attacker may use the IPS device to
bypass intrusion detection logic, run arbitrary code or perform a
denial of service attack on the network and/or IPS device.

If the IPS device is used in inline mode, an attacker may cause an
interruption of network service.

Software Versions and Fixes
===========================

This issue is fixed in IPS version 5.0(3) which is available for
download at http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/ips5

Obtaining Fixed Software
========================

Customers with Service Contracts
+-------------------------------

Customers with contracts should obtain upgraded software through their
regular update channels. For most customers, this means that upgrades
should be obtained through the Software Center on Cisco's worldwide
website at http://www.cisco.com.

Customers using Third-party Support Organizations
+------------------------------------------------

Customers whose Cisco products are provided or maintained through prior
or existing agreement with third-party support organizations such as
Cisco Partners, authorized resellers, or service providers should
contact that support organization for assistance with the upgrade,
which should be free of charge.

Customers without Service Contracts
+----------------------------------

Customers who purchase direct from Cisco but who do not hold a Cisco
service contract and customers who purchase through third-party vendors
but are unsuccessful at obtaining fixed software through their point of
sale should get their upgrades by contacting the Cisco Technical
Assistance Center (TAC). TAC contacts are as follows.

  * +1 800 553 2447 (toll free from within North America)
  * +1 408 526 7209 (toll call from anywhere in the world)
  * e-mail: tac at cisco.com

Please have your product serial number available and give the URL of
this notice as evidence of your entitlement to a free upgrade. Free
upgrades for non-contract customers must be requested through the TAC.

Please do not contact either "psirt at cisco.com" or
"security-alert at cisco.com" for software upgrades.

See http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/687/Directory/DirTAC.shtml for
additional TAC contact information, including special localized
telephone numbers and instructions and e-mail addresses for use in
various languages.

Customers may only install and expect support for the feature sets they
have purchased. By installing, downloading, accessing or otherwise
using such software upgrades, customers agree to be bound by the terms
of Cisco's software license terms found at
http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-license-agreement.html, or as otherwise
set forth at Cisco.com Downloads at
http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/sw-usingswc.shtml.

Workarounds
===========

As a security best practice, you should always configure your IPS
device with a list of trusted hosts or networks that you want to have
access to the IPS sensor.

For more information on setting up IPS access lists so that only
trusted hosted and networks may access the sensor, please see

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2113/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a008045a77c.html#wp1031536

Exploitation and Public Announcements
=====================================

The Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any public announcements or malicious
use of the vulnerability described in this advisory.

This issue was discovered during internal testing.

Status of This Notice: FINAL
============================

THIS ADVISORY IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY
KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE ADVISORY OR
MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE ADVISORY IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES
THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

A stand-alone copy or paraphrase of the text of this security advisory
that omits the distribution URL in the following section is an
uncontrolled copy, and may lack important information or contain
factual errors.

Distribution
============

This advisory will be posted on Cisco's worldwide website at
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-200500824-ips.shtml

In addition to worldwide web posting, a text version of this notice is
clear-signed with the Cisco PSIRT PGP key and is posted to the
following e-mail and Usenet news recipients.

  * cust-security-announce at cisco.com
  * first-teams at first.org (includes CERT/CC)
  * bugtraq at securityfocus.com
  * cisco at spot.colorado.edu
  * cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
  * full-disclosure at lists.grok.org.uk
  * comp.dcom.sys.cisco at newsgate.cisco.com

Future updates of this advisory, if any, will be placed on Cisco's
worldwide website, but may or may not be actively announced on mailing
lists or newsgroups. Users concerned about this problem are encouraged
to check the above URL for any updates.

Revision History
================

+----------------------------------------+
| Revision |                | Initial    |
| 1.0      | 2005-August-22 | public     |
|          |                | release.   |
+----------------------------------------+

Cisco Security Procedures
=========================

Complete information on reporting security vulnerabilities in Cisco
products, obtaining assistance with security incidents, and registering
to receive security information from Cisco, is available on Cisco's
worldwide website at 
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_security_vulnerability_policy.html
This includes instructions for press inquiries regarding Cisco security
notices. All Cisco security advisories are available at
http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt.

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