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Cisco Telnet DoS Vulnerability
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
A specifically crafted Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to a
telnet or reverse telnet port of a Cisco device running Internetwork
Operating System (IOS) may block further telnet, reverse telnet, Remote
Shell (RSH), Secure Shell (SSH), and in some cases Hypertext Transport
Protocol (HTTP) access to the Cisco device. Telnet, reverse telnet, RSH
and SSH sessions established prior to exploitation are not affected.
All other device services will operate normally. Services such as packet
forwarding, routing protocols and all other communication to and through
the device are not affected.
Cisco will make free software available to address this vulnerability.
Workarounds, identified below, are available that protect against this
vulnerability.
DETAILS
Affected Products:
Vulnerable Products
This vulnerability affects all Cisco devices that permit access via telnet
or reverse telnet. Any IOS train without specific fixed releases listed in
the
<http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040827-telnet.shtml#software>
Software Versions and Fixes section should be considered vulnerable.
Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable
Cisco products that do not run IOS are not affected.
Details:
Telnet, RSH and SSH are used for remote management of Cisco IOS devices.
The SSH protocol is also used for Secure Copy (SCP), which allows an
encryption-protected transfer of files to and from Cisco devices.
Services operating over IPv4 and IPv6 are similarly affected.
HTTP is also used for management of certain Cisco devices. IOS versions
prior to 12.2(15)T include HTTP server version 1.0, which, if configured,
will be unresponsive on a device that is under exploitation. IOS versions
after and including 12.2(15)T include HTTP server version 1.1, which is
unaffected.
Reverse telnet is a feature that allows you to telnet to a Cisco device
and then connects to a third device through an asynchronous serial
connection. For more information on reverse telnet, consult the following
documents:
<http://cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1828/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800871ec.html>
http://cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1828/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800871ec.html
<http://cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1826/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800d9bd8.html>
http://cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1826/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800d9bd8.html
Cisco devices that are operating as a reverse telnet server may have ports
open in the ranges of:
* 2001 to 2999
* 3001 to 3099
* 6001 to 6999
* 7001 to 7099
After a specially crafted TCP connection to an IOS device on TCP port 23
or the reverse telnet ports listed above, all subsequent telnet, reverse
telnet, RSH (TCP port 514), SSH, SCP (SSH and SCP use TCP port 22), and in
some cases HTTP (TCP port 80) connections to the device experiencing
exploitation will be unsuccessful. Any telnet, reverse telnet, RSH, SSH,
SCP and HTTP sessions that are already established with the device will
continue to function properly.
In Cisco IOS, telnet, reverse telnet, RSH, SSH, SCP and some HTTP sessions
are handled by a virtual terminal (VTY). Each telnet, reverse telnet, RSH,
SSH and SCP session consumes a VTY. After successful exploitation, the
Cisco device can no longer accept any subsequent VTY connections.
Though it is not possible to establish new telnet, reverse telnet, RSH,
SSH, SCP or HTTP connections to the device after a successful
exploitation, the device is only vulnerable on TCP port 23 and the reverse
telnet ports listed above.
A successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a complete 3-way
TCP handshake, which makes it very difficult to spoof the source IP
address.
Only remote access services that use VTYs are affected. This includes
telnet, reverse telnet, RSH, SSH, SCP and version 1.0 of the HTTP server.
Other device services including, but not limited to, routing protocols,
TACACS/RADIUS, Voice over IP (VoIP) and packet forwarding are not
affected.
This vulnerability is addressed by Cisco bug ID:
*
<http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Support/Bugtool/onebug.pl?bugid=CSCef46191>
CSCef46191 ( registered customers only)
To determine the software running on a Cisco product, log in to the device
and issue the show version command to display the system banner. Cisco IOS
software will identify itself as "Internetwork Operating System Software"
or simply "IOS ". On the next line of output, the image name will be
displayed between parentheses, followed by "Version" and the IOS release
name. Other Cisco devices will not have the show version command or will
give different output.
The following example identifies a Cisco product running IOS release
12.0(3) with an installed image name of C2500-IS-L:
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software IOS (TM)
2500 Software (C2500-IS-L), Version 12.0(3), RELEASE SOFTWARE
The release train label is "12.0".
The next example shows a product running IOS release 12.0(2a)T1 with an
image name of C2600-JS-MZ:
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software IOS (tm)
C2600 Software (C2600-JS-MZ), Version 12.0(2a)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Additional information about Cisco IOS Banners is available at
<http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ios_abcs_ios_networking_the_enterprise0900aecd800a4e15.html>
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ios_abcs_ios_networking_the_enterprise0900aecd800a4e15.html.
Impact:
Exploitation of this vulnerability may result in the denial of new telnet,
reverse telnet, RSH, SSH, SCP and HTTP connections to a device running
IOS. Other access to the device via the console or SNMP is not affected.
The device will remain in this state until the problematic TCP connection
is cleared, or the device is reloaded (which will clear the problematic
session). If no other access methods are available, exploitation of this
vulnerability could deny remote access to the device.
Depending on your network architecture, workarounds may be available to
mitigate this vulnerability. Software will be available to repair this
vulnerability.
Software Versions and Fixes:
Cisco is working to release fixes for this vulnerability in all currently
maintained IOS releases. No software upgrade is required in order to
mitigate this vulnerability. See the information below regarding the
available configuration workarounds. The software fixes will appear in
regularly scheduled maintenance releases of IOS software.
As fixed software becomes available for public release, Cisco will update
this
<http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040827-telnet.shtml#software>
section of the advisory.
Workarounds:
The effectiveness of any workaround is dependent on specific customer
situations such as product mix, network topology, traffic behavior, and
organizational mission. Customers should consult with their service
provider or support organization to ensure any applied workaround is the
most appropriate for use in the intended network before it is deployed.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The information has been provided by <mailto:psirt@cisco.com> Cisco
Systems Product Security Incident Response Team.
The original article can be found at:
<http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040827-telnet.shtml>
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20040827-telnet.shtml
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