Horizon Alert
Summary of the vulnerability and why it matters
A critical vulnerability in Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software's VNC console could permit an unauthenticated attacker to gain administrative access by intercepting a VNC session. This could allow an attacker to view or control an administrator's console session.
- Unauthenticated access to administrative VNC sessions.
- Confirms potential for unauthorized administrative control.
- Verify exposure and impact to critical infrastructure.
Attack Path
How an attacker could exploit the issue
An attacker could gain administrative access to a device by exploiting a weak authentication mechanism in Cisco NFVIS's VNC console. The attacker would need to be able to intercept or access the network traffic related to an administrator's VNC session request before the administrator logs in. Successful exploitation would allow the attacker to view or control the administrative console session, effectively taking over administrative control of the device.
- Attacker must intercept VNC session requests.
- Vulnerability is in VNC console authentication.
- Risk is administrative access to the device.
Live Threat
Current exploitation, exposure, and threat context
An unauthenticated attacker could potentially gain administrative access to an affected device by exploiting an insufficient authentication mechanism in the VNC console implementation. This could allow them to view or interact with an active administrative session, leading to unauthorized control of the system.
- Administrative VNC session access at risk.
- Attacker intercepts VNC session request.
- Unauthorized administrative control of device.
Operational Fix
Recommended remediation, mitigation, and detection steps
This critical vulnerability in Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software's VNC console impacts infrastructure and platform teams responsible for managing network functions. The immediate first step is to inventory all affected deployments, confirm VNC console accessibility and business criticality, and identify the accountable owner for remediation planning.
- Infrastructure and platform teams own remediation.
- Verify VNC console exposure and business criticality.
- Plan remediation based on identified risk.
