CVE-2016-9204 in Intercloud Fabric
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in the Cisco Intercloud Fabric (ICF) Director could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to connect to internal services with an internal account. Affected Products: Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud is affected. More Information: CSCus99379. Known Affected Releases: 2.2(1).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/05/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-9204 resides within the Cisco Intercloud Fabric (ICF) Director component, specifically affecting the Nexus 1000V InterCloud deployment. This security flaw represents a critical access control weakness that enables unauthenticated remote attackers to establish connections to internal network services using legitimate internal accounts. The vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms and improper authorization controls within the ICF Director's service access protocols, creating an exploitable pathway for malicious actors to bypass normal security boundaries and gain unauthorized access to internal infrastructure.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a misconfiguration in the authentication and authorization framework of the ICF Director system. Attackers can exploit this weakness to connect to internal services without providing valid credentials, leveraging the system's failure to properly validate external access requests. This flaw operates at the network protocol level where the system's service discovery and access control mechanisms are insufficient to distinguish between legitimate external requests and malicious unauthorized access attempts. The vulnerability specifically impacts the 2.2(1) release of the affected software, indicating a regression or oversight in the security implementation that was introduced in this particular version.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it allows attackers to potentially escalate privileges and move laterally within the internal network infrastructure. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can gain access to sensitive internal services and data that would normally be restricted to authorized personnel only. This creates significant risk for organizations deploying the affected Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud solutions, as it undermines the fundamental security boundaries designed to protect internal systems from external threats. The vulnerability directly violates security principles outlined in the Common Weakness Enumeration framework under CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues that allow attackers to assume the identity of legitimate users.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations to protect their network infrastructure. The recommended approach includes applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates that address the authentication bypass weakness in the ICF Director component. Network segmentation and access control policies should be reviewed and strengthened to limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual access patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. According to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability aligns with techniques related to credential access and privilege escalation, making it particularly dangerous for attackers seeking to establish persistent access within target networks. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of proper security configuration management and regular vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate similar weaknesses in network infrastructure components.