A vulnerability in the process management code of the Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) Expressway could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary programs with elevated privileges. The vulnerability is due to the failure to protect a supervised process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by completing a series of steps that ultimately allows a lower-privileged process to be restarted with root privilege. An attacker would need to crash a firestarter.py supervised process before the privilege is escalated after the process is restarted. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain elevated privileges on the device, which could result in a complete system compromise. Cisco has not released software updates that address this vulnerability. Workarounds that mitigate this vulnerability are not available. This advisory is available at the following link: http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20151006-vcs
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 be upgraded 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.
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.
To learn about Cisco security vulnerability disclosure policies and publications, see the Security Vulnerability Policy. This document also contains instructions for obtaining fixed software and receiving security vulnerability information from Cisco.
| Version | Description | Section | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Initial public release. | NA | Final | 2015-October-06 |
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