CVE-2019-1757 - Improper Certificate Validation

Severity

43%

Complexity

86%

Confidentiality

48%

A vulnerability in the Cisco Smart Call Home feature of Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized read access to sensitive data using an invalid certificate. The vulnerability is due to insufficient certificate validation by the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by supplying a crafted certificate to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to decrypt confidential information on user connections to the affected software.

A vulnerability in the Cisco Smart Call Home feature of Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized read access to sensitive data using an invalid certificate. The vulnerability is due to insufficient certificate validation by the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by supplying a crafted certificate to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to decrypt confidential information on user connections to the affected software.

CVSS 3.0 Base Score 5.9. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: high. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 4.3. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: medium. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N).

Demo Examples

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

This code checks the certificate of a connected peer.


               
foo=SSL_get_verify_result(ssl);
// certificate looks good, host can be trusted

In this case, because the certificate is self-signed, there was no external authority that could prove the identity of the host. The program could be communicating with a different system that is spoofing the host, e.g. by poisoning the DNS cache or using a MITM attack to modify the traffic from server to client.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code obtains a certificate and verifies it.


               
}
// do secret things

Even though the "verify" step returns X509_V_OK, this step does not include checking the Common Name against the name of the host. That is, there is no guarantee that the certificate is for the desired host. The SSL connection could have been established with a malicious host that provided a valid certificate.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that there is a certificate and allows the use of expired certificates.


               
//do stuff

If the call to SSL_get_verify_result() returns X509_V_ERR_CERT_HAS_EXPIRED, this means that the certificate has expired. As time goes on, there is an increasing chance for attackers to compromise the certificate.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that there is a certificate before continuing execution.


               
// got a certificate, do secret things

Because this code does not use SSL_get_verify_results() to check the certificate, it could accept certificates that have been revoked (X509_V_ERR_CERT_REVOKED). The software could be communicating with a malicious host.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that the host has a certificate.


               
}
// got certificate, host can be trusted//foo=SSL_get_verify_result(ssl);//if (X509_V_OK==foo) ...

Note that the code does not call SSL_get_verify_result(ssl), which effectively disables the validation step that checks the certificate.

Overview

Type

Cisco IOS

First reported 5 years ago

2019-03-28 01:29:00

Last updated 5 years ago

2019-10-09 23:47:00

Affected Software

Cisco IOS 12.4(25E)JAP1M

12.4\(25e\)jap1m

Cisco IOS 12.4(25E)JAP2

12.4\(25e\)jap2

Cisco IOS 12.4(25E)JAP26

12.4\(25e\)jap26

Cisco IOS 12.4(25E)JAZ1

12.4\(25e\)jaz1

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E4

15.2\(2\)e4

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E5

15.2\(2\)e5

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E5A

15.2\(2\)e5a

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E5B

15.2\(2\)e5b

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E6

15.2\(2\)e6

Cisco IOS 15.2(2)E7

15.2\(2\)e7

Cisco IOS 15.2(3)E5

15.2\(3\)e5

Cisco IOS 15.2(4)E3

15.2\(4\)e3

Cisco IOS 15.2(4)E4

15.2\(4\)e4

Cisco IOS 15.2(4)JAZ1

15.2\(4\)jaz1

Cisco IOS 15.2(4)JN1

15.2\(4\)jn1

Cisco IOS 15.2(4M)E3

15.2\(4m\)e3

Cisco IOS 15.2(4N)E2

15.2\(4n\)e2

Cisco IOS 15.2(4O)E2

15.2\(4o\)e2

Cisco IOS 15.2(4P)E1

15.2\(4p\)e1

Cisco IOS 15.2(5)E1

15.2\(5\)e1

Cisco IOS 15.2(5)E2

15.2\(5\)e2

Cisco IOS 15.2(5)E2C

15.2\(5\)e2c

Cisco IOS 15.2(5)EA

15.2\(5\)ea

Cisco IOS 15.2(5)EX

15.2\(5\)ex

Cisco IOS 15.2(5a)E

15.2\(5a\)e

Cisco IOS 15.2(5A)E1

15.2\(5a\)e1

Cisco IOS 15.2(5b)E

15.2\(5b\)e

Cisco IOS 15.2(5C)E

15.2\(5c\)e

Cisco IOS 15.3(3)JA1N

15.3\(3\)ja1n

Cisco IOS 15.3(3)JN1

15.3\(3\)jn1

Cisco IOS 15.3(3)JN2

15.3\(3\)jn2

Cisco IOS 15.5(3)s1

15.5\(3\)s1

Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S1A

15.5\(3\)s1a

Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S2

15.5\(3\)s2

Cisco IOS 15.5(3)S3

15.5\(3\)s3

Cisco IOS 15.6(1)t0a

15.6\(1\)t0a

Cisco IOS 15.6(2)SN

15.6\(2\)sn

Cisco IOS 15.6(2)SP

15.6\(2\)sp

Cisco IOS 15.6(2)SP1

15.6\(2\)sp1

Cisco IOS 15.6(3)M

15.6\(3\)m

Cisco IOS 15.6(3)M1b

15.6\(3\)m1b

Cisco IOS 15.6(3)M2

15.6\(3\)m2

Cisco IOS 15.6(3)M2A

15.6\(3\)m2a

Cisco IOS 15.6(3)M3

15.6\(3\)m3

Cisco IOS XE

Cisco IOS XE 3.6.5AE

3.6.5ae

Cisco IOS XE 3.6.5BE

3.6.5be

Cisco IOS XE 3.6.5E

3.6.5e

Cisco IOS XE 3.6.6E

3.6.6e

Cisco IOS XE 3.6.7E

3.6.7e

Cisco IOS XE 3.7.5E

3.7.5e

Cisco IOS XE 3.8.2E

3.8.2e

Cisco IOS XE 3.9.2E

3.9.2e

Cisco IOS XE 3.16.1AS

3.16.1as

Cisco IOS XE 3.16.1S

3.16.1s

Cisco IOS XE 3.16.2BS

3.16.2bs

Cisco IOS XE 3.17.1AS

3.17.1as

Cisco IOS XE 3.18.0AS

3.18.0as

Cisco IOS XE 3.18.0S

3.18.0s

Cisco IOS XE 16.3.4

16.3.4

Cisco IOS XE 16.4.2

16.4.2

Cisco IOS XE 16.5.1

16.5.1

Cisco IOS XE 16.5.1B

16.5.1b

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