+44 (0)203 88 020 88

Menu

Search

Cyber Security News & Articles

 

Cyber Security
News & Articles

Trusted Cyber Security Experts
25+ Years Industry Experience
Ethical, Professional & Pragmatic

Critical vulnerabilities affect Cisco WAN VPN Routers and Small Business Switches

vulnerable cisco switch router

Remote access attacks allow authentication bypass and remote code execution

Cisco has just released urgent patches for their RV320 and RV325 WAN VPN routers.  The patches resolve two critical vulnerabilities in the router’s firmware:

  • CVE-2019-1653 – allows a remote attacker to get sensitive device configuration details without a password (including the hashed passwords for all users).
  • CVE-2019-1652 – allows a remote attacker to inject and run admin commands on the device without a password.

Earlier this week, badpackets.net reported that over 9000 of these vulnerable devices were visible through the Shodan search engine.

The affected firmware releases are 1.4.2.15 and 1.4.2.17. Cisco has released a patch for these routers that should be applied immediately by anyone using outdated firmware. Changing the device’s admin and WiFi credentials is also highly recommended as they may already be compromised.

Serious design flaw uncovered in Cisco Small Business Switch authentication system

This report comes shortly after another critical Cisco vulnerability was disclosed in its Small Business Switches (200, 250, 300, 350, 350X, 500 and 500X series switches are all affected ). The vulnerability allows an attacker to bypass the user authentication mechanism and access the device with full admin rights. This vulnerability is not a code defect but rather a serious design flaw in that a default admin account is enabled by the operating system if no other accounts are present with a privilege level of 15. This default account cannot be disabled directly and it will automatically become available if no other level 15 accounts are configured on the device – without issuing any alerts to the administrator or showing up in any configuration listings i.e. it is an invisible account.

According to Cisco, “The default user account is defined in a software-internal data structure and is not visible in either the running configuration or the startup configuration of an affected device.”

No software patch is yet available for this vulnerability which affects all versions of the firmware.

To check if your device is vulnerable, the following command can be used:

Switch# show running-config | include privilege 15

If the output of this command is empty – the device is vulnerable.

To resolve the issue, add a new administrative user, using the instructions on the Cisco webpage here:

https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20181107-sbsw-privacc.

 

 

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter today

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest cyber security news and articles from our technical team, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. 

We hate spam as much as you do, so we promise not to bombard you with emails. We’ll send you a single, curated email each month that contains all of our cyber security news and articles for that month.

Why Choose SecureTeam?

Customer Testimonials

“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”

Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

"Within a very tight timescale, SecureTeam managed to deliver a highly professional service efficiently. The team helped the process with regular updates and escalation where necessary. Would highly recommend"

IoT Solutions Group Limited Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Founder

“First class service as ever. We learn something new each year! Thank you to all your team.”

Royal Haskoning DHV Service Delivery Manager

“We’ve worked with SecureTeam for a few years to conduct our testing. The team make it easy to deal with them; they are attentive and explain detailed reports in a jargon-free way that allows the less technical people to understand. I wouldn’t work with anyone else for our cyber security.”

Capital Asset Management Head of Operations

“SecureTeam provided Derbyshire's Education Data Hub with an approachable and professional service to ensure our schools were able to successfully certify for Cyber Essentials. The team provided a smooth end-to-end service and were always on hand to offer advice when necessary.”

Derbyshire County Council Team Manager Education Data Hub

“A very efficient, professional, and friendly delivery of our testing and the results. You delivered exactly what we asked for in the timeframe we needed it, while maintaining quality and integrity. A great job, done well.”

AMX Solutions IT Project Officer

“We were very pleased with the work and report provided. It was easy to translate the provided details into some actionable tasks on our end so that was great. We always appreciate the ongoing support.”

Innovez Ltd Support Officer

Get in touch today

If you’d like to see how SecureTeam can take your cybersecurity posture to the next level, we’d love to hear from you, learn about your requirements and then send you a free quotation for our services.

Our customers love our fast-turnaround, “no-nonsense” quotations – not to mention that we hate high-pressure sales tactics as much as you do.

We know that every organisation is unique, so our detailed scoping process ensures that we provide you with an accurate quotation for our services, which we trust you’ll find highly competitive.

Get in touch with us today and a member of our team will be in touch to provide you with a quotation. 

0

No products in the basket.

No products in the basket.