CVE-2018-7977 in Product
Summary
by MITRE
There is an information leakage vulnerability on several Huawei products. Due to insufficient communication protection for specific services, a remote, unauthorized attacker can exploit this vulnerability to connect to specific services to obtain additional information. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to information leakage.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/12/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-7977 represents a critical information disclosure weakness affecting multiple Huawei networking and telecommunications equipment models. This flaw stems from inadequate communication protection mechanisms implemented within specific service protocols, creating a pathway for remote attackers to access sensitive system information without proper authentication. The vulnerability impacts Huawei's enterprise networking equipment, including routers, switches, and wireless access points that utilize proprietary communication protocols for management and operational functions.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient implementation of secure communication channels for specific management services within Huawei's product ecosystem. Attackers can exploit this weakness by establishing connections to designated service ports and leveraging the inadequate authentication mechanisms to extract sensitive information from the affected devices. The vulnerability specifically targets the communication protocols used for device management and monitoring functions, where proper encryption and authentication measures are either missing or inadequately implemented. This allows unauthorized entities to perform information gathering activities that would normally be restricted to authorized administrators or system components.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant security risks for organizations relying on Huawei networking infrastructure. The information leakage could potentially expose network topology details, device configurations, user credentials, or other sensitive operational data that could be leveraged for subsequent attacks. The remote exploitability of this vulnerability means that attackers can target affected systems from outside the network perimeter, eliminating the need for physical access or insider knowledge. This characteristic makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by threat actors with minimal technical expertise or resources, potentially leading to broader network compromise and data breaches.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate affected devices, disabling unnecessary management services where possible, and applying official Huawei security patches as released. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which addresses information exposure, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1082 for system information discovery. Security teams should also conduct comprehensive network scans to identify all affected Huawei devices and establish monitoring protocols to detect potential exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and vulnerability management processes should be enhanced to prevent similar issues in other network infrastructure components, emphasizing the importance of secure communication protocol implementation and proper authentication mechanisms across all networked devices.