Cisco Nexus 3000 and 9000 Series Switches Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the Enable Secret feature of Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode could allow an authenticated, local attacker to issue the enable command and get full administrative privileges. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have valid credentials for the affected device.

The vulnerability is due to a logic error in the implementation of the enable command. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the device and issuing the enable command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain full administrative privileges without using the enable password.

Note: The Enable Secret feature is disabled by default.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-n3n9k-priv-escal-3QhXJBC [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-n3n9k-priv-escal-3QhXJBC”]

This advisory is part of the August 2020 Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication, which includes seven Cisco Security Advisories that describe seven vulnerabilities. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: August 2020 Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-74239”].