Vulnerabilities > CVE-2023-20194 - Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine
Summary
A vulnerability in the ERS API of Cisco ISE could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to read arbitrary files on the underlying operating system of an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have valid Administrator-level privileges on the affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper privilege management in the ERS API. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate their privileges beyond the sphere of their intended access level, which would allow them to obtain sensitive information from the underlying operating system. Note: The ERS is not enabled by default. To verify the status of the ERS API in the Admin GUI, choose Administration > Settings > API Settings > API Service Settings.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Restful Privilege Elevation Rest uses standard HTTP (Get, Put, Delete) style permissions methods, but these are not necessarily correlated generally with back end programs. Strict interpretation of HTTP get methods means that these HTTP Get services should not be used to delete information on the server, but there is no access control mechanism to back up this logic. This means that unless the services are properly ACL'd and the application's service implementation are following these guidelines then an HTTP request can easily execute a delete or update on the server side. The attacker identifies a HTTP Get URL such as http://victimsite/updateOrder, which calls out to a program to update orders on a database or other resource. The URL is not idempotent so the request can be submitted multiple times by the attacker, additionally, the attacker may be able to exploit the URL published as a Get method that actually performs updates (instead of merely retrieving data). This may result in malicious or inadvertent altering of data on the server.