john_cox
Senior Editor

Cisco warns of four WLAN controller vulnerabilities

news
Feb 4, 20092 mins

The vulnerabilities affect all of Cisco's wireless LAN controllers with software version 4.2 or higher

Cisco on Wednesday issued a security alert warning of a quartet of vulnerabilities affecting all of its wireless LAN controllers, including the Catalyst 6500 and 7600 wireless modules, with software version 4.2 or higher.

Three are denial-of-service attacks. The fourth, specific to one particular software version, could allow a restricted user to gain full administrative rights to the controller. The DoS attacks could cause the controllers to hang or reload, with repeated attacks creating a sustained service denial condition, according to the alert.

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No work-arounds for these vulnerabilities exist. But Cisco has posted software patches for all four of them. 

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Two of the DoS attacks are aimed at Web authentication. In one instance, the attacker can use a vulnerability scanner to cause the controller to stop servicing Web authentication for wireless clients, or cause the controller to reload. The second can trigger a controller reload by sending a malformed post to the Web authentication “login.html” page.

The third DoS attack involves the controller receiving “certain IP packets” that trigger a “DoS condition,” causing the controller to become unresponsive. This is limited to software version 4.1 in the 4400 series, Catalyst 6500 Wireless Services Module, and 3750 Integrated Wireless LAN Controllers.

The last attack, classed as a “privilege escalation vulnerability,” exists only in controller software version 4.2.173.0. A successful exploitation may allow an unauthenticated user to gain full administrative rights to the targeted controller.

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john_cox

I cover wireless networking and mobile computing, especially for the enterprise; topics include (and these are specific to wireless/mobile): security, network management, mobile device management, smartphones and tablets, mobile operating systems (iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10), BYOD (bring your own device), Wi-Fi and wireless LANs (WLANs), mobile carrier services for enterprise/business customers, mobile applications including software development and HTML 5, mobile browsers, etc; primary beat companies are Apple, Microsoft for Windows Phone and tablet/mobile Windows 8, and RIM. Preferred contact mode: email.

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