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Exploit Available for Cisco IOS Vulnerability

GNUman writes "Cisco's IOS vulnerability, posted by Slashdot and CERT, has now a published exploit available, as reported recently by CERT. While there are some some articles claiming that the Internet survived a major flaw, maybe with a publicly available exploit could script kiddies start creating havock?. jerw134 wanted to start a pool to find out when the exploit would be publicly available, here's the answer."

30 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Them Script Kiddies by inertia187 · · Score: 4, Funny

    About them Script Kiddies,
    the internet's old plight.
    Goin' all around,
    usin' hacks they didn't write.
    Them Script Kiddies lurk the net,
    as devious little foes.
    Keep them admins well employed,
    and keeps them on their toes!
    When Script Kiddies learn a trick,
    it makes for one tight spot.
    If you ain't patched up to date,
    think again, because you ought.
    How to be a Script Kiddy,
    logon the net ad hoc.
    Google for the hack you want,
    and start your own havoc.

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  2. Great... by mfifer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...the 'sploit is more easily available than the fix!

    Anyone else gone through hell today trying to get the patch from Cisco?

    Grrr... >-/

    1. Re:Great... by NerveGas · · Score: 4, Informative


      The patch is extremely easy to come by. Do a "sh ver" on your router, and send the output to tac@cisco.com, and ask for an updated IOS. They'll likely be back to you within an hour or so.

      steve

      --
      Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
    2. Re:Great... by Pii · · Score: 3, Informative
      Most Cisco code updates do not require TAC intervention, or email swapping. This is an isolated case.

      Also, I haven't had to mail TAC yet for any of the routers (30, and counting) I've had to upgrade. My new code has been available throught the traditional channel (Cisco's Software Center).

      People that are having to mail the TAC are doing so because they have no support contract (thus, no access to the Cisco Software Center), or because the code for their specific platform doesn't appear to be available through the Software center.

      --
      For those that would die defending it, Freedom
      has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
    3. Re:Great... by NerveGas · · Score: 5, Informative

      You have either a bizarre definition of the phrase "extremely easy" or very little perspective on how easy it is to patch many other products.

      I sent one email, and in return, got all of the IOS versions that I needed for my routers. I'd definitely say that was "extremely easy".

      Maybe you mean that I can just tell Linus what kind of computer I have, and he'll send me over a tarball of 2.4.21, pre-configured with the options I'd like?

      you don't have to email somebody and wait an hour to get the exploit

      If you have a CCO account, then you don't have to wait an hour, you log in and pick it up. Super-mega-fabuloso-easy.

      steve

      --
      Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
  3. Contact your network company by nacturation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you haven't yet received notification from your NOC that they're going to be doing maintenance, you really need to impress upon them to get this fixed. In a nutshell, this flaw could allow a malicious hacker to shut down traffic to your servers.

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    1. Re:Contact your network company by Sick+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

      After which they'll explain that they use Juniper equipment because it doesn't suck near as much as Cisco and you'll look like an ass.

      --
      Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
    2. Re:Contact your network company by Florian+Weimer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you haven't yet received notification from your NOC that they're going to be doing maintenance, you really need to impress upon them to get this fixed. In a nutshell, this flaw could allow a malicious hacker to shut down traffic to your servers.

      First of all, your network might be running on non-Cisco gear (yes, there are other vendors).

      Second, the fact that so many NOCs have to apply emergency patches is scaring. I can understand that NOCs hesitate to install the latest release just after it has been published (some of the releases which include the fix have been available for months), but this particular bug only affects you if your router is insufficiently protected by ACLs against all kinds of malicious traffic. You really want to install such ACLs to mitigate the effect of typical DoS attacks targeted at the router itself, and if you've done your homework, bugs like the present one do not require emergency maintainance.

  4. Re:Exploits et al., by _14k4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right, only now the webpage sucks because it's black and white.. ;)

  5. Re:Exploits et al., by Burlynerd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You're right on the money with the "maturity" comments, Jack. The way technology has been running, we have been in a constant state of trying to learn something new. We've never really had a chance to get "really good" at some of our technologies, before the next version or replacement technology arrived.

    The Cisco situation is not due to bleeding edge issues though. They should have found this problem sooner.

  6. Tell me why by broothal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, maybe it's just me, but why is it that I have to provide Ciso with serial number, date of purchase and the name of my cat to get this fix? I mean - the fix is software, and it will only work on Ciso units. So - for crying out loud - put the patch on an FTP site and get over with it. Jumping through hoops to get the patch isn't going to speed things up.

    1. Re:Tell me why by jht · · Score: 5, Informative

      Gee, I just had to call TAC up and give them the serial number to get in (our router doesn't have a service contract). Within an hour, I had a callback from the engineer who was given my case and an e-mail in my inbox looking for the specific info needed (the version of IOS I was running and the exact name of the binary - all produced by "sh ver").

      After I got him the info, it was only a few minutes before the patch link was sent to me for download. The whole thing was done before lunch today - and that's for a little piss-ant customer with no service contract and a single router.

      I think that's about as simple as it needs to be, personally. There's different versions of IOS for different devices, and all sorts of supported code revisions to deal with - it's not like Windows where you have a core version and service packs/hotfixes you may or may not have applied in random combination. Typically, if you have a Cisco router and it's working you'll only want to apply the minimum possible fix to the specific version you're running. So it's a pretty darned complex upgrade matrix. I, for one, am perfectly happy to let TAC guide me through it.

      --
      -- Josh Turiel
      "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  7. "Creating" havock... by MattRog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They'll be creating something but I don't know what. Hopefully it won't resemble havoc.

    --

    Thanks,
    --
    Matt
  8. Go Open Source by Papa+Legba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Once again we see the power of open source! From anounced flaw to exploit in two days. Beat that Microshaft!..... Oh.... Wait.... This is not a good thing is it....

    --
    Papa Legba come and open the gate
  9. Whew. by CrackerJackz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Glad I dodged the bullet, I've got every last router patKL()*$OFD_)#@ [LINK DOWN]

  10. Dear Slashdot, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thanks heaps.

    Regards,
    Cisco Systems.

  11. Protocol Independent Multicast? by jkc120 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If I'm reading this page correctly, the protocol type of the packet that causes the problem appears to be the PIM protocol:

    grep 103 /etc/protocols
    pim 103 PIM # Protocol Independent Multicast

    --
    "I drank what?" -Socrates
    1. Re:Protocol Independent Multicast? by XenoPhage · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, it's 4 protocols ... 53, 55, 77, and 103.. Any one of these can kill the interface.

      I've already posted a lot of information regarding this on the Nanog list.. but the "exploit" that has been release (shadowchode) isn't required to exploit this bug .. hping can do this just as easily..

      --
      XenoPhage
      Technological Musings
  12. Re:Exploits et al., by brkello · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, this post really bothers me. In any complex system, there are bound to be bugs. I seriously find it hard to believe that if you tackled something as difficult as networking, spent years working on it, would have a finished product that was 100% error free. The word "mature" is just a label. It is meaningless in reality. I agree with you that people should use the right tool for the job, but comparing switching out color pictures for B&W ones and translating code in to C with routing and switching is like comparing a computer that can win at tic tac toe to a computer that can't be beat at chess. The fact of the matter is, Cisco is used by millions for their networking needs. If you think you can produce a more "mature" product that miraculously has no bugs then please do so. I guarantee you will be a rich man. The unfortunate thing is, that most likely by the time your system is mature, Cisco will have a product out that makes your device obsolete.

    --
    Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
  13. Importance of shaming they who published the explo by lanner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Importance of shaming those who published this exploit

    There was very little time to act upon the new IOS version that Cisco provided to the public. The software upgrades were available to the public on Thursday morning at 00:00. CERT made their announcement about 15 minutes later. Today, the exploit is public. That is less than 48 hours to upgrade the hundreds of thousands (if not million+) Cisco routers across the world.

    This is the most important security event effecting the Internet since the root DNS server attacks some time back, and this one is potentially much more severe. I have been surprised at the lack of media attention of this issue, or how some of my technical colleges have treated it. They don't seem to understand how many Cisco routers are out there.

    It needs to be shown that by making the exploit of this vulnerability public so soon, the persons who did this only did so for publicity gain at the expense of others.

    They hurt others to profit themselves, and that is no more cool than slavery is. And what did they get out of it? "My dick is bigger than yours."

    I just don't want this to pass over and the people who made this exploit public think that what they did was cool, or that they are going to get a lot of admiration or karma for it. If they like the Internet, which they probably do, they just did the most harmful thing to it as they could have possibly done.

  14. Re:Where is the Exploit ? by grokBoy · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can find the original exploit here.

  15. enormous ddos potential - patch right away! by Brian+Ristuccia · · Score: 4, Informative

    Imagine your typical packet kiddie running dozens of instances of the following pseudocode on his farm of a few hundred trojaned boxes:


    while (1) {

    $x = random(255);
    $y = random(255);
    $z = random(255);
    @hops = traceroute("$x.$y.$z.1");
    for $hopnum (5..@#hops) { # don't kill nearby routers
    system("shadowchode", $hops[$hopnum], 255 - $hopnum);

    }

    }

    If you haven't patched already - do it now.

  16. Just Fix It by vinn · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Cisco released the fix two days ago to backbone providers. Other large customers could get the fix early yesterday. If you're affected by this vulnerability and it's not fixed yet:

    • You're not subscribed to the proper news channels (i.e. you're not doing your job) or
    • You're lazy (i.e. you're not doing your job) or
    • You're not as important as you thought (i.e. someone else isn't doing their job.)

    It seems like Cisco handled this one correctly with the providers. I'm not sure how well large customers were handled, my guess is the .edu folks probably got screwed again.

    --
    ----- obSig
  17. Just tried it.. by nolife · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just tried this on our routers at work, it does not appear to work. I did n tice som pkt lss but a r nn

    --
    Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
  18. Is this a problem of feature inflation? by CraigV · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I had the impression that routing was a fairly straight-forward task and that 100% reliable software should be available for the routers. Has Cisco added frills to such an extent that the basic routing is compromised? Is this current problem associated with unnecessary features?

  19. That reminds me of "don't do drugs" camp by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Back in middle school, where they told us all, "here's exactly what drug x looks like, what it does,and how to get it & use it... but please don't use it. That would be bad!"
    4 years later... dang! Why are all the students on crack? :) aieee!

    --
    stuff |
  20. Source for shadowcode Exploit by pope1 · · Score: 5, Informative
    In case you want to test this on your own routers (worked against my 1005.. sadly :P)

    Heres a link to the source in b64 format, you can extract it with:

    openssl base64 -d -in cisco.txt -out cisco.tgz

    Happy testing!

    --
    /* * pope1 */
  21. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN by gclef · · Score: 3, Insightful

    WRONG.

    This is not the CatOS vulnerability, which was announced a week ago. This is a vulnerability in IOS (not CatOS), that Cisco discovered themselves (apparently a while ago, based on some of the build dates). It has been on the public lists for about 2 days now.

    If you're going to mock someone, make sure you have your fact straight.

  22. The fix... by robpoe · · Score: 5, Informative

    The following access list is specifically designed to block attack traffic. Note that the attack traffic can include spoofed source addresses. This access list should be applied to all interfaces of the device, and should include topology-specific filters. This could include filtering routing protocol traffic, management protocols, and traffic destined for the internal network. Protocol 103 is Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), which is a commonly deployed application in multicast networks.

    Interfaces with PIM enabled have not been found to be vulnerable to exploit traffic with protocol
    103; PIM traffic may be permitted to those select devices.

    access-list 101 deny 53 any any
    access-list 101 deny 55 any any
    access-list 101 deny 77 any any
    access-list 101 deny 103 any any
    !--- insert any other previously applied ACL entries here
    !--- you must permit other protocols through to allow normal
    !--- traffic -- previously defined permit lists will work
    !--- or you may use the permit ip any any shown here
    access-list 101 permit ip any any

    --
    = Grow a brain...
  23. Re:Importance of shaming they who published the ex by realdpk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Without full disclosure, what % of the routers out there would be patched right now? 10? Maybe.

    It sounds to me like Cisco needs to get their genius engineers together to come up with a better way to distribute IOS images - one that does not involve e-mail, perhaps!

    What the people did _was_ cool. They contacted Cisco a while back. Then they released the exploit almost *2 days* after the patch was announced.

    Nice try bringing slavery in to this. That's rediculous.

    "most harmful thing to it they could have possibly done." Please. Even if they released it 2 seconds before the patch was available, the Internet may have had instability for a day or two while Cisco ships out CDRs to everyone so they can fix it.

    To those that choose full disclosure for security - I applaud you! I really appreciate having a program available that allows me to test if my systems are vulnerable and remain vulnerable post-patching.