Cisco recently mitigated high-severity vulnerabilities, concerning privilege escalation and denial-of-service (DoS) risks, in its IOS XR software. The vulnerabilities encompass a spectrum of issues, including a SSH privilege escalation flaw impacting Cisco IOS XR Software for Cisco 8000 Series Routers and Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 540 Series and 5700 Series Routers. An authenticated, local attacker could abuse this vulnerability to achieve root access on the affected device.
Another high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2024-20318, is attributed to Layer 2 Ethernet services within Cisco IOS XR Software, where an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker could instigate a reset of the line card network processor, leading to a DoS condition. Cisco also addressed a denial-of-service vulnerability, CVE-2024-20327, within the PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) termination feature of ASR 9000 series routers. An unauthenticated, adjacent attacker can exploit this weakness to crash the ppp_ma process, resulting in a DoS condition for PPPoE traffic across the router.
These security issues highlight the critical need for prompt patching and close monitoring of network infrastructure to defend against potential exploitation. Organizations using the affected Cisco products should apply the necessary updates provided by Cisco to ensure the security of their network infrastructure.
