CVE-2018-0432 in SD-WAN Solution
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in the error reporting feature of the Cisco SD-WAN Solution could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to gain elevated privileges on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to a failure to properly validate certain parameters included within the error reporting application configuration. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted command to the error reporting feature. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain root-level privileges and take full control of the device.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/30/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-0432 resides within the Cisco SD-WAN Solution's error reporting functionality, representing a critical privilege escalation flaw that undermines the security posture of network infrastructure devices. This vulnerability specifically targets the validation mechanisms employed within the error reporting application configuration, creating a pathway for authenticated remote attackers to escalate their privileges from standard user levels to root access. The Cisco SD-WAN Solution, designed to optimize and manage software-defined wide area networks, becomes particularly susceptible to this flaw due to its centralized management architecture and the critical nature of its operational components.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from improper parameter validation within the error reporting feature, which fails to adequately sanitize input parameters that are processed by the application. This validation failure creates a condition where maliciously crafted commands can be injected into the error reporting configuration, bypassing normal access controls and authentication mechanisms. The flaw operates at the application layer and leverages the trust model inherent in the device's error reporting system, where legitimate administrative functions are not sufficiently separated from potentially dangerous command execution paths. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-20, which describes improper input validation, and demonstrates how insufficient parameter validation can lead to privilege escalation attacks.
The operational impact of CVE-2018-0432 extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as successful exploitation grants attackers complete control over affected devices, enabling them to manipulate network traffic, modify configurations, or establish persistent backdoors within the SD-WAN infrastructure. This privilege escalation capability allows adversaries to compromise the entire network segment managed by the affected device, potentially affecting thousands of endpoints and creating a significant attack surface for lateral movement within the enterprise network. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can exploit this vulnerability without requiring physical access to the device, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network devices are exposed to untrusted network segments.
Security professionals should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates released by Cisco to address this vulnerability. Network segmentation and access control measures should be strengthened to limit the scope of potential exploitation, while monitoring systems should be enhanced to detect unusual administrative activities or command executions within the error reporting feature. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of proper input validation and secure coding practices, particularly in administrative interfaces where privilege escalation opportunities exist. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of their SD-WAN deployments and implement principle of least privilege configurations to minimize the potential impact of similar vulnerabilities in the future. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under privilege escalation techniques, specifically targeting the use of application flaws to gain elevated system privileges.