Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Cisco Patches Serious Flaws in Security, Wireless Appliances

Cisco has released software updates to address a series of critical and high severity vulnerabilities affecting some of the company’s security and wireless appliances.

Cisco has released software updates to address a series of critical and high severity vulnerabilities affecting some of the company’s security and wireless appliances.

The most serious of the flaws disclosed on Wednesday is a command injection vulnerability (CVE-2015-6298) affecting the certificate generation process in the administration web interface of the Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA). The vulnerability, caused by improper parameter validation, can be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges.

The Cisco Web Security Appliance is also affected by a couple of high severity denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerabilities that can be exploited to cause the device to run out of system memory. One of these security bugs affects the file-range request functionality of Cisco AsyncOS (CVE-2015-6293), while the other impacts the AsyncOS proxy cache functionality (CVE-2015-6292).

Vulnerabilities in AsyncOS components also affect the Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA). One of these issues, a DoS flaw identified as CVE-2015-6321, can be used by a remote attacker to cause the device to stop accepting new TCP connections. The second issue, first disclosed in June, can be exploited by a remote, unauthenticated attacker to bypass the appliance’s anti-spam functionality.

Cisco has also announced patching a couple of high severity vulnerabilities in the Mobility Services Engine, a platform designed to help organizations increase visibility into their network, strengthen security, and deploy location-based mobile services via Wi-Fi.

Security researcher Jeremy Brown discovered that the platform has a user account protected by a default and static password (CVE-2015-6316). An unauthenticated attacker can use it to remotely log in to the Mobility Services Engine. However, Cisco has pointed out that the account in question doesn’t have full admin privileges.

Brown has also found a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Mobility Services Engine (CVE-2015-4282). The flaw can be exploited by a local, authenticated attacker to escalate their privileges to root.

Cisco has released software updates to address these vulnerabilities and workarounds are also available in some cases. The networking giant says its Product Security and Incident Response Team (PSIRT) has not found any evidence that these flaws have been leveraged for malicious purposes.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related Reading: Cisco to Acquire Lancope for $452 Million

Related Reading: Cisco Introduces New Vulnerability Disclosure Format

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Learn how the LOtL threat landscape has evolved, why traditional endpoint hardening methods fall short, and how adaptive, user-aware approaches can reduce risk.

Watch Now

Join the summit to explore critical threats to public cloud infrastructure, APIs, and identity systems through discussions, case studies, and insights into emerging technologies like AI and LLMs.

Register

People on the Move

Jessica Newman has joined Sophos as General Manager of Global Cyber Insurance.

Breach and attack simulation solutions provider AttackIQ has appointed Pete Luban as Field Chief Information Security Officer.

Matthew Cowell has assumed the role of VP of Strategic Alliances at Nozomi Networks. He previously served in the same role at Dragos.

More People On The Move

Expert Insights

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest cybersecurity news, threats, and expert insights. Unsubscribe at any time.