Cisco NX-OS Software Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the user account management interface of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain elevated privileges on an affected device.

The vulnerability is due to an incorrect authorization check of user accounts and their associated Group ID (GID). An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by taking advantage of a logic error that will permit the use of higher privileged commands than what is necessarily assigned. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to execute commands with elevated privileges on the underlying Linux shell of an affected device.

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

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20190306-nxos-privesca [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20190306-nxos-privesca”]

This advisory is part of the March 2019 Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication, which includes 25 Cisco Security Advisories that describe 26 vulnerabilities. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: March 2019 Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-70757”].