A vulnerability has been found in Cisco IOS XE (Router Operating System) (affected version not known) and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown functionality of the component ROM Monitor. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a access control vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-284. The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A vulnerability in the Cisco IOS XE ROM Monitor (ROMMON) Software for Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers, Cisco ASR 920 Series Aggregation Services Routers, Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, and Cisco cBR-8 Converged Broadband Routers could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to break the chain of trust and load a compromised software image on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to the presence of a debugging configuration option in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to an affected device through the console, forcing the device into ROMMON mode, and writing a malicious pattern using that specific option on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to break the chain of trust and load a compromised software image on the affected device. A compromised software image is any software image that has not been digitally signed by Cisco.

The weakness was published 09/24/2020 as cisco-sa-rommon-secboot-7JgVLV as confirmed advisory (Website). The advisory is shared at tools.cisco.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2020-3524 since 12/12/2019. The exploitation appears to be difficult. An attack has to be approached locally. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1068 for this issue.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

Similar entries are available at 161906, 161904 and 161903.

Productinfo

Type

• Router Operating System

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• IOS XE

License

• commercial

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Discussion