Cisco 600 routers offer cracker fun

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/15246.html

By: John Leyden
Posted: 05/12/2000 at 16:40 GMT

Cisco has advised users to update the software used in its 600 family
of routers following the identification of what it admits are multiple
security vulnerabilities.

Early versions of the operating system on the routers, which is called
CBOS, are vulnerable to no less than four separate problems, Cisco
admitted in a security vulnerability e-mailed to users earlier today.

Any router in the Cisco 600 family that is configured to allow Web
access can be locked by sending a specific URL. If that doesn't take
the fancy of crackers, they could always try sending either a large
ICMP ECHO (PING) packet to it or a stream of TCP SYN packets to the
router - both of which can be used to mount denial of service attacks,
or block services to, the routers in question.

Crackers playing with any of these techniques can be assured they are
unlikely to be found out. The fourth defect means invalid login
attempts using the router's Web interface are not logged, making
tracing them more difficult.

The solution to all these problems is to upgrade from earlier software
to either of the following CBOS releases: 2.3.5.015, 2.3.7.002, 2.3.9
and 2.4.1. More information on the issue is available here .

The question arises: why not issue an advisory about each
vulnerability, since the root cause of each is quiet different? To
answer this we did a little digging.

A check of the securityfocus.com, which logs vulnerabilities reports,
reveals that Cisco has recorded 22 vulnerabilities advisories
involving its products this year. This is way below the 184 postings
recorded by Microsoft but still puts it up there in the Premier
League.

Aside from volume there is one striking difference between advisories
from Cisco and Microsoft. Microsoft issues patches to correct problems
in its products, and if these are serious enough offers to include
these in the next service pack. Cisco fixes vulnerabilities by asking
users to upgrade software - which it generally makes freely available
to customers with suitable contracts.

Whether deliberate or not, over time this policy means Cisco has to
support fewer users with older versions of its software and users are
moving to software with added features that tie them ever closer to
the Great Stan of Routers.

Of course this may be a flight of paranoid speculation (although we
can't think of another hardware vendor about whom this argument can be
made), but it also makes great business sense.

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