Financial Services Technology

Cisco Security Alert (Read-Only Path Traversal Vulnerability)

By Matsco Engineering Team

Cisco Security Alert (Read-Only Path Traversal Vulnerability)

Cisco has updated the security advisory on 22-July-2020 that a vulnerability in the web services interface of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct directory traversal attacks and read sensitive files on a targeted system.

The vulnerability is due to a lack of proper input validation of URLs in HTTP requests processed by an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request containing directory traversal character sequences to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view arbitrary files within the web services file system on the targeted device. The web services file system is enabled when the affected device is configured with either WebVPN or AnyConnect features. This vulnerability cannot be used to obtain access to ASA or FTD system files or underlying operating system (OS) files.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This vulnerability affects Cisco products if they are running a vulnerable release of Cisco ASA Software or Cisco FTD Software with a vulnerable AnyConnect or WebVPN configuration. The affected products are:

  • Cisco FTD Software
  • Cisco ASA Software

For all Matsco Full Support and Maintenance clients, Matsco will implement the fix to the firewalls affected. For all other contracts, Matsco recommends any affected systems are updated as soon as convenient.

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