Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) Software Upgrade unnecessary privileges

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). Affected is an unknown function of the component Software Upgrade Handler. The manipulation leads to unnecessary privileges. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2024-20478. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component Software Upgrade Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a unnecessary privileges vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-250. The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A vulnerability in the software upgrade component of Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) and Cisco Cloud Network Controller, formerly Cisco Cloud APIC, could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with Administrator-level privileges to install a modified software image, leading to arbitrary code injection on an affected system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient signature validation of software images. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by installing a modified software image. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system and elevate their privileges to root. Note: Administrators should always validate the hash of any upgrade image before uploading it to Cisco APIC and Cisco Cloud Network Controller.

It is possible to read the advisory at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-20478 since 11/08/2023. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploitation needs additional levels of successful authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/01/2025). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)

Version

• 1.1(1d)
• 1.1(1j)
• 1.1(1n)
• 1.1(1o)
• 1.1(1r)
• 1.1(1s)
• 1.1(2h)
• 1.1(2i)
• 1.1(3f)
• 1.1(4e)
• 1.1(4f)
• 1.1(4g)
• 1.1(4i)
• 1.1(4l)
• 1.1(4m)
• 1.2(1h)
• 1.2(1i)
• 1.2(1k)
• 1.2(1m)
• 1.2(2g)
• 1.2(2h)
• 1.2(2i)
• 1.2(2j)
• 1.2(3c)
• 1.2(3e)
• 1.2(3h)
• 1.2(3m)
• 1.3(1g)
• 1.3(1h)
• 1.3(1i)
• 1.3(1j)
• 1.3(2f)
• 1.3(2h)
• 1.3(2i)
• 1.3(2j)
• 1.3(2k)
• 2.0(1k)
• 2.0(1l)
• 2.0(1m)
• 2.0(1n)
• 2.0(1o)
• 2.0(1p)
• 2.0(1q)
• 2.0(1r)
• 2.0(2f)
• 2.0(2g)
• 2.0(2h)
• 2.0(2l)
• 2.0(2m)
• 2.0(2n)
• 2.0(2o)
• 2.1(1h)
• 2.1(1i)
• 2.1(2e)
• 2.1(2f)
• 2.1(2g)
• 2.1(2k)
• 2.1(3g)
• 2.1(3h)
• 2.1(3j)
• 2.1(4a)
• 2.2(1k)
• 2.2(1n)
• 2.2(1o)
• 2.2(2e)
• 2.2(2f)
• 2.2(2i)
• 2.2(2j)
• 2.2(2k)
• 2.2(2q)
• 2.2(3j)
• 2.2(3p)
• 2.2(3r)
• 2.2(3s)
• 2.2(3t)
• 2.2(4f)
• 2.2(4p)
• 2.2(4q)
• 2.2(4r)
• 2.3(1e)
• 2.3(1f)
• 2.3(1i)
• 2.3(1l)
• 2.3(1o)
• 2.3(1p)
• 3.0(1i)
• 3.0(1k)
• 3.0(2h)
• 3.0(2k)
• 3.0(2m)
• 3.0(2n)
• 3.1(1i)
• 3.1(2m)
• 3.1(2o)
• 3.1(2p)
• 3.1(2q)
• 3.1(2s)
• 3.1(2t)
• 3.1(2u)
• 3.1(2v)
• 3.2(1l)
• 3.2(1m)
• 3.2(2l)
• 3.2(2o)
• 3.2(3i)
• 3.2(3j)
• 3.2(3n)
• 3.2(3o)
• 3.2(3r)
• 3.2(3s)
• 3.2(4d)
• 3.2(4e)
• 3.2(5d)
• 3.2(5e)
• 3.2(5f)
• 3.2(6i)
• 3.2(7f)
• 3.2(7k)
• 3.2(8d)
• 3.2(9b)
• 3.2(9f)
• 3.2(9h)
• 3.2(10e)
• 3.2(10f)
• 3.2(10g)
• 3.2(41d)
• 4.0(1h)
• 4.0(2c)
• 4.0(3c)
• 4.0(3d)
• 4.1(1a)
• 4.1(1i)
• 4.1(1j)
• 4.1(1k)
• 4.1(1l)
• 4.1(2g)
• 4.1(2m)
• 4.1(2o)
• 4.1(2s)
• 4.1(2u)
• 4.1(2w)
• 4.1(2x)
• 4.2(1g)
• 4.2(1i)
• 4.2(1j)
• 4.2(1l)
• 4.2(2e)
• 4.2(2f)
• 4.2(2g)
• 4.2(3j)
• 4.2(3l)
• 4.2(3n)
• 4.2(3q)
• 4.2(4i)
• 4.2(4k)
• 4.2(4o)
• 4.2(4p)
• 4.2(5k)
• 4.2(5l)
• 4.2(5n)
• 4.2(6d)
• 4.2(6g)
• 4.2(6h)
• 4.2(6l)
• 4.2(6o)
• 4.2(7f)
• 4.2(7l)
• 4.2(7q)
• 4.2(7r)
• 4.2(7s)
• 4.2(7t)
• 4.2(7u)
• 4.2(7v)
• 4.2(7w)
• 5.0(1k)
• 5.0(1l)
• 5.0(2e)
• 5.0(2h)
• 5.1(1h)
• 5.1(2e)
• 5.1(3e)
• 5.1(4c)
• 5.2(1g)
• 5.2(2e)
• 5.2(2f)
• 5.2(2g)
• 5.2(2h)
• 5.2(3e)
• 5.2(3f)
• 5.2(3g)
• 5.2(4d)
• 5.2(4e)
• 5.2(4f)
• 5.2(4h)
• 5.2(5c)
• 5.2(5d)
• 5.2(5e)
• 5.2(6e)
• 5.2(6g)
• 5.2(6h)
• 5.2(7f)
• 5.2(7g)
• 5.2(8d)
• 5.2(8e)
• 5.2(8f)
• 5.2(8g)
• 5.2(8h)
• 5.2(8i)
• 5.3(1d)
• 5.3(2a)
• 5.3(2b)
• 5.3(2c)
• 6.0(1g)
• 6.0(1j)
• 6.0(2h)
• 6.0(2j)
• 6.0(3d)
• 6.0(3e)
• 6.0(3g)
• 6.0(4c)
• 6.0(5h)
• 6.0(5j)

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.cisco.com/

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