Cisco has released security advisories addressing critical vulnerabilities present in its Integrated Management Controller (IMC) system and its SNMP implementation within Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software. These security flaws could allow attackers to execute code remotely or access sensitive systems.
Key Vulnerabilities
The two high severity vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2024-20295 and CVE-2024-20356 with a CVSS score of rated 8.8 and 8.7, respectively is a command injection vulnerability, that have been discovered in Cisco’s IMC. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to gain root-level access, potentially compromising entire systems.
The medium severity vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-20373 with a CVSS score of 5.3 resides within Cisco’s SNMP implementation could allow unauthenticated attackers to conduct unauthorized SNMP polling on affected devices. This could allow the attacker to gather sensitive system information.
Affected Products
A wide range of Cisco products are affected by the IMC vulnerabilities, including:
- Cisco 5000 Series Enterprise Network Compute Systems (ENCS)
- Catalyst 8300 Series Edge uCPE
- UCS C-Series Rack Servers in standalone mode
- UCS E-Series Servers
- Various Cisco appliances, including Wireless Controllers, DNA Center Appliances, Meeting Server Appliances, and many others.
Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team has confirmed that proof-of-concept exploit code exists for the IMC command injection vulnerability (CVE-2024-20295). This makes these vulnerabilities particularly dangerous and highlights the importance of immediate patching.
While there are active proof-of-concept exploits, Cisco PSIRT has not yet observed any malicious use of the vulnerabilities in the wild. Cisco strongly urges IT administrators, system owners, and cybersecurity professionals to patch the vulnerabilities.
