Cisco ACE 4710 Application Control Engine Command Injection Vulnerability

Summary

• A vulnerability in the Device Manager GUI of the Cisco ACE 4710 Application Control Engine could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute any command-line interface (CLI) command on the ACE with admin user privileges.
  
  The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious HTTP POST request with injected CLI commands inside the value of a POST parameter value. An exploit could allow the attacker to bypass the role-based access control (RBAC) restrictions enforced by the Cisco ACE Device Manager GUI.
  
  Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. Workarounds that mitigate this vulnerability are available.
  
  This advisory is available at the following link: http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20160224-ace

Affected Products

• Vulnerable Products

  Cisco ACE 4710 Application Control Engine running A5 software releases up to A5(3.0) is vulnerable when configured to allow access to the Device Manager GUI. Inspect the relevant sections of the configuration to determine whether Device Manager GUI access is configured on the ACE, as shown in the following example:
  

  ace-4710-1/Admin# show running-config
  Generating configuration....
  [...]
  
  class-map type management match-any my-mgmt-class
  202 match protocol icmp any
  203 match protocol https any
  204 match protocol ssh any
  [...]
  
  policy-map type management first-match my-mgmt-pol
  class my-mgmt-class
  permit
  [...]
  
  interface vlan 2
  [...]
  service-policy input my-mgmt-pol
  service-policy input other-traffic
  no shutdown

  To determine which software version is running on the appliance, administrators can issue the show version command. The following is an example of the output of this command issued on a system running software version A5(3.2):
  

  ace-4710-1/Admin# show version
  Cisco Application Control Software (ACSW)
  TAC support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
  Copyright (c) 1985-2015 by Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
  The copyrights to certain works contained herein are owned by
  other third parties and are used and distributed under license.
  Some parts of this software are covered under the GNU Public
  License. A copy of the license is available at
  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.
  
  Software
    loader:    Version 0.95.1
    system:    Version A5(3.2) [build 3.0(0)A5(3.2) adbuild
    _17:03:27-2015/04/02_/auto/adbure_nightly4/renumber
    /rel_a5_3_2_throttle/REL_3_0_0_A5_3_2]
    system image file: (hd0,1)/c4710ace-t1k9-mz.A5_3_2.bin
    Device Manager version 5.3.2 (0) 20150331:0838

  Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable

  No other Cisco products are currently known to be affected by this vulnerability.
  
  Cisco has confirmed that this vulnerability does not affect the following Cisco products:
  

  • Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module
  • Cisco Application Networking Manager (ANM)

Workarounds

• Administrators can disable management access to the Cisco ACE 4710 Application Control Engine Device Manager GUI until the appropriate fix can be applied. The following example shows how to disable access, assuming the device is configured with the following management class map:
  
  

  class-map type management match-any my-mgmt-class
  202 match protocol icmp any
  203 match protocol https any  
  204 match protocol ssh any
  
  
  ace-4710-1/Admin# configure terminal
  Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
  
  ace-4710-1/Admin(config)# class-map type management match-any my-mgmt-class
  ace-4710-1/Admin(config-cmap-mgmt)# no match protocol https any

Fixed Software

• Cisco has released free software updates that address the vulnerability described in this advisory. Customers may only install and expect support for software versions and feature sets for which they have purchased a license. By installing, downloading, accessing, or otherwise using such software upgrades, customers agree to follow the terms of the Cisco software license: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/warranty/English/EU1KEN_.html
  
  Additionally, customers may only download software for which they have a valid license, procured from Cisco directly, or through a Cisco authorized reseller or partner. In most cases this will be a maintenance upgrade to software that was previously purchased. Free security software updates do not entitle customers to a new software license, additional software feature sets, or major revision upgrades.
  
  When considering software upgrades, customers are advised to consult the Cisco Security Advisories and Responses archive at http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt and review subsequent advisories to determine exposure and a complete upgrade solution.
  
  In all cases, customers should ensure that the devices to upgrade contain sufficient memory and confirm that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release. If the information is not clear, customers are advised to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or their contracted maintenance providers.
  
  Customers Without Service Contracts
  
  Customers who purchase directly from Cisco but do not hold a Cisco service contract and customers who make purchases through third-party vendors but are unsuccessful in obtaining fixed software through their point of sale should obtain upgrades by contacting the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC): http://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_worldwide_contacts.html
  
  Customers should have the product serial number available and be prepared to provide the URL of this advisory as evidence of entitlement to a free upgrade.
  
  Fixed Versions
  The vulnerability described in this advisory has been fixed in software versions: A5(3.3), A5(3.2), A5(3.1b), A5(3.1a), and A5(3.1).

Exploitation and Public Announcements

• The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory.

Source

• This vulnerability was reported to Cisco by Jan Kadijk of Warpnet BV.

URL

• http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20160224-ace

Revision History

• Version	Description	Section	Status	Date
  1.0	Initial public release.	-	Final	2016-February-24

  Show Less