Vulnerabilities > CVE-2018-0378 - Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Cisco Nx-Os 7.3(2)N1(0.8)

047910
CVSS 7.8 - HIGH
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
COMPLETE
network
low complexity
cisco
CWE-20
nessus

Summary

A vulnerability in the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) feature of Cisco Nexus 5500, 5600, and 6000 Series Switches running Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to a lack of protection against PTP frame flood attacks. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending large streams of malicious IPv4 or IPv6 PTP traffic to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition, impacting the traffic passing through the device.

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
    This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
  • Server Side Include (SSI) Injection
    An attacker can use Server Side Include (SSI) Injection to send code to a web application that then gets executed by the web server. Doing so enables the attacker to achieve similar results to Cross Site Scripting, viz., arbitrary code execution and information disclosure, albeit on a more limited scale, since the SSI directives are nowhere near as powerful as a full-fledged scripting language. Nonetheless, the attacker can conveniently gain access to sensitive files, such as password files, and execute shell commands.
  • Cross Zone Scripting
    An attacker is able to cause a victim to load content into their web-browser that bypasses security zone controls and gain access to increased privileges to execute scripting code or other web objects such as unsigned ActiveX controls or applets. This is a privilege elevation attack targeted at zone-based web-browser security. In a zone-based model, pages belong to one of a set of zones corresponding to the level of privilege assigned to that page. Pages in an untrusted zone would have a lesser level of access to the system and/or be restricted in the types of executable content it was allowed to invoke. In a cross-zone scripting attack, a page that should be assigned to a less privileged zone is granted the privileges of a more trusted zone. This can be accomplished by exploiting bugs in the browser, exploiting incorrect configuration in the zone controls, through a cross-site scripting attack that causes the attackers' content to be treated as coming from a more trusted page, or by leveraging some piece of system functionality that is accessible from both the trusted and less trusted zone. This attack differs from "Restful Privilege Escalation" in that the latter correlates to the inadequate securing of RESTful access methods (such as HTTP DELETE) on the server, while cross-zone scripting attacks the concept of security zones as implemented by a browser.
  • Cross Site Scripting through Log Files
    An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
  • Command Line Execution through SQL Injection
    An attacker uses standard SQL injection methods to inject data into the command line for execution. This could be done directly through misuse of directives such as MSSQL_xp_cmdshell or indirectly through injection of data into the database that would be interpreted as shell commands. Sometime later, an unscrupulous backend application (or could be part of the functionality of the same application) fetches the injected data stored in the database and uses this data as command line arguments without performing proper validation. The malicious data escapes that data plane by spawning new commands to be executed on the host.

Nessus

NASL familyCISCO
NASL idCISCO-SA-20181017-NEXUS-PTP-DOS.NASL
descriptionAccording to its self-reported version, the Cisco NX-OS Software is affected by a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability which exists in its Precision Time Protocol (PTP) implementation due to a lack of protection against PTP frame flood attacks. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can exploit this issue, by sending large streams of malicious PTP traffic to the device, to cause the system to stop responding. Please see the included Cisco BIDs and the Cisco Security Advisory for more information.
last seen2020-06-01
modified2020-06-02
plugin id128877
published2019-09-17
reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/128877
titleCisco NX-OS Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Denial of Service Vulnerability
code
#TRUSTED 2ae9bab7d7cd49b315c5564c32a252423ae54ca8b99f4152f8e9096d1fe54148bec55e727f510e0f05fb446c271160f93a7540408ad3a61ecaef5d01d8edc9ed76c0871a3bb0e24b2e203de79daf77472ebe3a1faa6e743d56c7d233734827dbb97ac1173f3abad75944dd4a7b3f76533fdde3124135342fe0ab3760ba32b68f1f8be7b956e913defe1fb673e76c7d46f1b1684266027dc22bace6319498b869b9e1658e8b527c29e945851cd03e760258dcbd9997c81c9e409034e836317c15b04c15ec7202688737b454b1b782ff3bc410bb0789ec3daade15405ede082c84d9a24afa288a42cbf8ed4bab036415ae142fbbea13e4910e6b3576b0c71a1b4055dd6f93ea86e349edfe7741876d717b3bd3241cee457847efd90af38c6a301b3e7c7354c1331d15cb730ab18777ad974cf50871aa08166db9f1569ea5b2d22186c38c43988e8972f8fdc69f28f0e3cca68788f88dffabaf1cdb98330a7898534f10a4062910da30a0a0e9b20d0a3f6e25af8fd771bf51eaa1e15f6da2c5616fa3597e9989ec22d33a63502882e8b11f58be9540b9fa1a139dc71d22fc7714ac5bca39d235a4dac742d589362e94ea0e410225c2fa4d92e04cf235db41e8154176745360236f169674b0e02d71c44c7943d008b9204e359fda5a371879226c8845635412068b9e5f44cc50358d8ee30c21dd6b4c9785ac2e5d4777082dd9dd98
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(128877);
  script_version("1.7");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/12/20");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2018-0378");
  script_bugtraq_id(105669);
  script_xref(name:"CISCO-BUG-ID", value:"CSCvg21830");
  script_xref(name:"CISCO-SA", value:"cisco-sa-20181017-nexus-ptp-dos");

  script_name(english:"Cisco NX-OS Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Denial of Service Vulnerability");
  script_summary(english:"Checks the Cisco NX-OS Software version.");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The remote Cisco device is affected by a denial of service vulnerability");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"According to its self-reported version, the Cisco NX-OS Software is affected
by a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability which exists in its Precision Time Protocol (PTP) implementation due to a 
lack of protection against PTP frame flood attacks. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can exploit this issue, by 
sending large streams of malicious PTP traffic to the device, to cause the system to stop responding. 

Please see the included Cisco BIDs and the Cisco Security Advisory for more information.");
  # https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20181017-nexus-ptp-dos
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?e46fc38e");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvg21830");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"Upgrade to the relevant fixed version referenced in Cisco bug ID(s)
CSCvg21830.");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2018-0378");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/10/17");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2018/12/19");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2019/09/17");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"combined");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:cisco:nx-os");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"CISCO");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("cisco_nxos_version.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Device", "Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Version", "Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Model");

  exit(0);
}

include('audit.inc');
include('cisco_workarounds.inc');
include('ccf.inc');

device = get_kb_item_or_exit('Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Device');
model = get_kb_item_or_exit('Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Model');
version = get_kb_item_or_exit('Host/Cisco/NX-OS/Version');

if ('Nexus' >!< device || model !~ '^5[56][0-9]{2}|6[0-9]{3}')
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'an affected device and/or model');

product_info = cisco::get_product_info(name:'Cisco NX-OS Software');

version_list = make_list(
  '6.0(2)N1(2)',
  '6.0(2)N1(2a)',
  '6.0(2)N2(1)',
  '6.0(2)N2(1b)',
  '6.0(2)N2(2)',
  '6.0(2)N2(3)',
  '6.0(2)N2(4)',
  '6.0(2)N2(5)',
  '7.0(0)N1(1)',
  '7.0(1)N1(1)',
  '7.0(2)N1(1)',
  '7.0(3)N1(1)',
  '7.0(6)N1(1)',
  '7.1(1)N1(1)',
  '6.0(2)N2(5a)',
  '6.0(2)N2(6)',
  '6.0(2)N2(7)',
  '7.0(4)N1(1)',
  '7.0(5)N1(1)',
  '7.0(5)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(7)N1(1)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1a)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1b)',
  '7.1(2)N1(1)',
  '7.1(3)N1(1)',
  '7.2(0)N1(1)',
  '7.2(1)N1(1)',
  '4.2(1)N1(1)',
  '4.2(1)N2(1)',
  '4.2(1)N2(1a)',
  '5.0(2)N1(1)',
  '5.0(2)N2(1)',
  '5.0(2)N2(1a)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1a)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1b)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1c)',
  '5.0(3)N2(1)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2a)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2b)',
  '5.1(3)N1(1)',
  '5.1(3)N1(1a)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1a)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1b)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1c)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1b)',
  '5.2(1)N1(2)',
  '5.2(1)N1(2a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(3)',
  '5.2(1)N1(4)',
  '5.2(1)N1(5)',
  '5.2(1)N1(6)',
  '5.2(1)N1(7)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8b)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9b)',
  '6.0(2)N1(1)',
  '7.0(8)N1(1)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1)',
  '7.1(3)N1(2)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1)',
  '7.1(5)N1(1)',
  '7.3(0)N1(1)',
  '7.3(1)N1(1)',
  '7.3(2)N1(1)',
  '7.3(1)N1(1)',
  '7.3(2)N1(1)',
  '7.3(0)N1(1b)',
  '7.3(0)N1(1a)',
  '7.3(0)N1(1)',
  '7.2(1)N1(1)',
  '7.2(0)N1(1)',
  '7.1(5)N1(1)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1d)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1c)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1a)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1)',
  '7.1(3)N1(5)',
  '7.1(3)N1(4)',
  '7.1(3)N1(3)',
  '7.1(3)N1(2a)',
  '7.1(3)N1(2)',
  '7.1(3)N1(1b)',
  '7.1(3)N1(1)',
  '7.1(2)N1(1a)',
  '7.1(2)N1(1)',
  '7.1(1)N1(1a)',
  '7.1(1)N1(1)',
  '7.1(0)N1(2)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1b)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1a)',
  '7.1(0)N1(1)',
  '7.0(8)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(8)N1(1)',
  '7.0(7)N1(1b)',
  '7.0(7)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(7)N1(1)',
  '7.0(6)N1(4s)',
  '7.0(6)N1(3s)',
  '7.0(6)N1(2s)',
  '7.0(6)N1(1c)',
  '7.0(6)N1(1)',
  '7.0(5)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(5)N1(1)',
  '7.0(4)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(4)N1(1)',
  '7.0(3)N1(1)',
  '7.0(2)N1(1a)',
  '7.0(2)N1(1)',
  '7.0(0)N1(1)',
  '7.0(1)N1(1)',
  '4.2(1)N1(1)',
  '4.2(1)N2(1)',
  '4.2(1)N2(1a)',
  '5.0(2)N1(1)',
  '5.0(2)N2(1)',
  '5.0(2)N2(1a)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1a)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1b)',
  '5.0(3)N1(1c)',
  '5.0(3)N2(1)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2a)',
  '5.0(3)N2(2b)',
  '5.1(3)N1(1)',
  '5.1(3)N1(1a)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1a)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1b)',
  '5.1(3)N2(1c)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(1b)',
  '5.2(1)N1(2)',
  '5.2(1)N1(2a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(3)',
  '5.2(1)N1(4)',
  '5.2(1)N1(5)',
  '5.2(1)N1(6)',
  '5.2(1)N1(7)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(8b)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9a)',
  '5.2(1)N1(9b)',
  '6.0(2)N1(1)',
  '6.0(2)N1(2)',
  '6.0(2)N1(2a)',
  '6.0(2)N2(1)',
  '6.0(2)N2(1b)',
  '6.0(2)N2(2)',
  '6.0(2)N2(3)',
  '6.0(2)N2(4)',
  '6.0(2)N2(5)',
  '6.0(2)N2(5a)',
  '6.0(2)N2(6)',
  '6.0(2)N2(7)',
  '7.1(4)N1(1e)'
);

workarounds = make_list(CISCO_WORKAROUNDS['ptp_clock']);
workaround_params = make_list();

reporting = make_array(
  'port'     , 0,
  'severity' , SECURITY_HOLE,
  'version'  , product_info['version'],
  'bug_id'   , 'CSCvg21830',
  'cmds'     , make_list('show ptp clock')
);

cisco::check_and_report(
  product_info:product_info,
  workarounds:workarounds,
  workaround_params:workaround_params,
  reporting:reporting,
  vuln_versions:version_list,
  switch_only:TRUE
);