[cisco-voip] Spectre and Meltdown remediation as relevant to Cisco systems

[Lelio Fulgenzi]

Good question. I'm not sure of the impact either. I _suspect_ that because ESXi abstracts the CPU that the intel CPU bug would affect ESXi only, not the underlying applications. Because you can't run the software on baremetal any longer, there shouldn't be a need to update the voice applications.

I'm also guessing that CIMC would likely need some updates too.

But yes, interesting to see how this plays out.


---
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. | Senior Analyst
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From: cisco-voip [mailto:cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Ben Amick
Sent: Monday, January 8, 2018 4:27 PM
To: voip puck <cisco-voip at puck.nether.net>
Subject: [cisco-voip] Spectre and Meltdown remediation as relevant to Cisco systems

So I haven't had much time to look into this, but has anyone else compiled a list of or needs for remediation for cisco systems for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities?

I know the one only affects Intel and some ARM processors, whereas the other is more OS level, if I understand properly?

So being that all the cisco telephony products are on virtualized product now, I assume that we would go to VMWare for any patching relevant to those, but I would imagine that we would also need a security patch for the redhat/centos OS the Unified Communications products run on (and doubly so for those of us using old MCS physical chassis?)

It looks like routers and switches, as well as ASAs are all potentially vulnerable as well.

I've found the following articles on their website: https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=56354 and https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20180104-cpusidechannel that details the issues a bit, but it looks like Cisco hasn't found anything yet nor delivered any patches?

Ben Amick
Unified Communications Analyst


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