CISA adds Cisco NX-OS Command Injection bug to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2024-20399 | Authenticated Command Injection in Cisco NX-OS Grants Root Privileges CVE-2024-20399 is a command injection flaw (CWE-78) in the CLI of Cisco NX-OS Software, caused by insufficient validation of arguments passed to specific configuration CLI commands. An authenticated attacker who already holds Administrator credentials can trigger it by submitting crafted input as the argument of an affected configuration command, gaining the ability to execute arbitrary commands as root on the device's underlying operating system. Because Administrator access is required, the flaw is effectively a privilege-escalation issue following credential compromise, and it grants no additional privilege on Nexus 3000 Series, Nexus 7000 Series running NX-OS 8.1(1) or later, and Nexus 9000 Series in standalone NX-OS mode, which already allow administrative bash-shell access to the OS. Any organization running affected NX-OS on Cisco Nexus switching is in scope, with the practical risk concentrated in environments where admin credentials may have been stolen. Exploitation has been observed in the wild: the China-linked group 'Velvet Ant' (associated with Salt Typhoon) used it as a zero-day to compromise U.S. ISPs and telecom providers, and CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-07-02. Do: Upgrade affected Nexus switches to a fixed NX-OS release per Cisco's security advisory, as required by the CISA KEV listing (apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use if fixes are unavailable). Restrict and audit Administrator-level CLI access on NX-OS devices, and hunt for suspicious configuration-command activity or unexplained root-level actions, given Velvet Ant/Salt Typhoon targeting of telecom and ISP networks. For Nexus 3000, Nexus 7000 (8.1(1)+), and Nexus 9000 standalone-mode devices the flaw adds no privilege, but patching is still recommended. | 6.7 | 4% | KEV |
| masshundreds of thousands of NX-OS/Nexus devices deployed across enterprise and data-center networks (no authoritative public install count) |
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U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Cisco NX-OS Command Injection bug to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a Cisco NX-OS Command Injection Vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-20399, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
This week, Cisco addressed an NX-OS zero-day, tracked as CVE-2024-20399 (CVSS score of 6.0), that the China-linked group Velvet Ant exploited to deploy previously unknown malware as root on vulnerable switches.
The flaw resides in the CLI of Cisco NX-OS Software, an authenticated, local attacker can exploit the flaw to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device.
“This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of arguments that are passed to specific configuration CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by including crafted input as the argument of an affected configuration CLI command.” reads the advisory published by Cisco. “A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with the privileges of root.”
The IT giant pointed out that only attackers with Administrator credentials can successfully exploit this vulnerability on a Cisco NX-OS device.
In April 2024, researchers reported to the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) that the issue was actively exploited in the wild.
Cybersecurity firm Sygnia observed the attacks on April 2024 and reported them to Cisco.
“Sygnia identified that CVE-2024-20399 was exploited in the wild by a China-nexus threat group as a ‘zero-day’ and shared the details of the vulnerability with Cisco. By exploiting this vulnerability, a threat group – dubbed ‘Velvet Ant’ – successfully executed commands on the underlying operating system of Cisco Nexus devices.” reads the report published by Sygnia. “This exploitation led to the execution of a previously unknown custom malware that allowed the threat group to remotely connect to compromised Cisco Nexus devices, upload additional files, and execute code on the devices.“
The vulnerability impacts the following devices:
- MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches (CSCwj97007)
- Nexus 3000 Series Switches (CSCwj97009)
- Nexus 5500 Platform Switches (CSCwj97011)
- Nexus 5600 Platform Switches (CSCwj97011)
- Nexus 6000 Series Switches (CSCwj97011)
- Nexus 7000 Series Switches (CSCwj94682) *
- Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode (CSCwj97009)
Cisco recommends customers monitor the use of credentials for the administrative users network-admin and vdc-admin.
Cisco provides the Cisco Software Checker to help customers determine if their devices are vulnerable to this flaw.
According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.
Experts recommend also private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.
CISA orders federal agencies to fix this vulnerability by July 23, 2024.
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