Organizations using Cisco’s Smart Licensing Utility (CSLU) are being urged to apply critical software updates immediately to address two serious vulnerabilities. The SANS Technology Institute issued a warning after observing exploit attempts targeting these flaws, originally disclosed by Cisco last September.

CSLU is a tool used to manage Cisco licenses, particularly within smaller, isolated networks. According to SANS’s Dean of Research, Johannes Ullrich, there has been detected activity aimed at exploiting these vulnerabilities, indicated by post related to their initial public disclosure.

The first vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-20439, involves an undocumented backdoor protected by a weak hardcoded password. This was discovered shortly after Cisco’s advisory, which detailed the risk. Hackers and security researchers find backdoors attractive targets, and the explicit details in Cisco’s advisory may have only served to heighten their interest.

The second vulnerability, CVE-2024-20440, allows attackers to access sensitive log files, including API credentials. Both flaws have received a high severity rating of 9.8 on the CVSS scale, indicating they are extremely dangerous, especially in combination. The affected versions of CSLU are 2.0.0, 2.1.0, and 2.2.0, while version 2.3.0 includes necessary patches.

Despite being a newer product, CSLU has vulnerabilities reminiscent of earlier Cisco products, which have been known for similar flaws involving hardcoded credentials. This history raises concerns over the security practices surrounding Cisco’s product development.

As summarized by Ullrich’s wry commentary on the situation, “the first one [CVE-2024-20439] is one of the many backdoors Cisco likes to equip its products with,” highlighting the ongoing challenge of addressing security weaknesses in widely used software.

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