Cisco Integrated Management Controller Supervisor, Cisco UCS Director, and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data Command Injection Vulnerability

Vulnerability

A command injection vulnerability exists in the web-based management interfaces of Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) Supervisor, Cisco UCS Director, and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data [1]. The flaw is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input by the web-based management interface, allowing an authenticated attacker with administrator privileges to inject arbitrary operating system commands [1].

Exploitation

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have valid administrator credentials and network access to the web-based management interface of an affected device [1]. The attacker then sends a crafted malicious request to a specific part of the interface, which results in the execution of arbitrary commands on the underlying Linux shell [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation grants the attacker root-level access to the underlying Linux operating system, with full control over the affected device [1]. This allows complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system and potentially the network it manages [1].

Mitigation

Cisco has released free software updates to address this vulnerability [1]. The advisory provides links and guidance for obtaining fixed releases, and customers are advised to upgrade to the patched versions. No workarounds are documented, but restricting administrative access to trusted networks may reduce exposure [1].