Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers Management Interface Remote Command Execution and Denial of Service Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability

The web-based management interface of Cisco Small Business RV016, RV042, RV042G, RV082, RV320, and RV325 routers contains improper validation of user-supplied input. This leads to multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities. An authenticated remote attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities by sending crafted HTTP requests. The vulnerabilities affect all firmware versions prior to the fixed releases listed in Cisco Security Advisory cisco-sa-rv-overflow-ghZP68yj [1].

Exploitation

An attacker must have valid administrator credentials for the affected device. No other network position or user interaction is required beyond sending HTTP requests to the web-based management interface. The attacker crafts specific HTTP requests that trigger the buffer overflow when processed by the vulnerable code. Exploitation does not require a race condition or any special timing [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code as the root user on the underlying operating system or cause the device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This gives the attacker full control over the router, enabling further network compromise [1].

Mitigation

Cisco has released free software updates that fix these vulnerabilities. The fixed firmware versions are specified in the security advisory [1]. Customers should upgrade to the latest firmware available for their device model. No workarounds are provided; the only mitigation is to apply the patch. There is no indication that these vulnerabilities are listed in the KEV catalog.