Cisco on Wednesday announced the availability of patches for a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software (NFVIS) for which proof-of-concept exploit code already exists.
Enterprise NFVIS is a piece of infrastructure software that helps organizations deploy virtualized network functions, including virtual routers and firewalls, on supported Cisco devices, while also providing centralized management and support for automated provisioning.
Tracked as CVE-2021-34746 (CVSS score of 9.8), the newly patched vulnerability was identified by Orange Group security researcher Cyrille Chatras. Proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code for this flaw “is available.”
The issue resides in the TACACS+ authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) feature of Enterprise NFVIS and exists because user supplied input is not completely validated when passed to an authentication script.
Because of this bug, an unauthenticated, remote attacker could inject parameters into an authentication request and exploit the vulnerability to bypass authentication and log in to an affected device as administrator.
The security hole affects Enterprise NFVIS release 4.5.1, but only if the TACACS external authentication method is configured, Cisco says.
While no workarounds exist to mitigate the vulnerability, Cisco has released software updates to address the bug. Enterprise NFVIS releases 4.6.1 and later contain the patches.
Cisco says that, although PoC code that exploits the vulnerability exists, it is not aware of malicious attacks targeting vulnerable products.
Cisco has also released patches for four medium-severity vulnerabilities impacting Prime Infrastructure and Evolved Programmable Network (EPN) Manager, Prime Collaboration Provisioning, Identity Services Engine (ISE) Software, and Nexus Insights.
Details on all of the addressed vulnerabilities are available on Cisco’s security portal.
Related: Cisco Patches Serious Vulnerabilities in Data Center Products
Related: Code Execution Flaw Found in Cisco Firepower Device Manager On-Box Software

More from Ionut Arghire
- 820k Impacted by Data Breach at Zacks Investment Research
- US Government Agencies Warn of Malicious Use of Remote Management Software
- Chinese Hackers Adopting Open Source ‘SparkRAT’ Tool
- CISA Provides Resources for Securing K-12 Education System
- Strata Raises $26 Million for Multi-Cloud Identity Management Platform
- Riot Games Says Source Code Stolen in Ransomware Attack
- Arm Vulnerability Leads to Code Execution, Root on Pixel 6 Phones
- Attacks Targeting Realtek SDK Vulnerability Ramping Up
Latest News
- Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin
- US Infiltrates Big Ransomware Gang: ‘We Hacked the Hackers’
- Tenable Launches $25 Million Early-Stage Venture Fund
- 820k Impacted by Data Breach at Zacks Investment Research
- Mapping Threat Intelligence to the NIST Compliance Framework Part 2
- Hive Ransomware Operation Shut Down by Law Enforcement
- US Government Agencies Warn of Malicious Use of Remote Management Software
- UK Gov Warns of Phishing Attacks Launched by Iranian, Russian Cyberspies
