CVE-2022-20925: Critical Vulnerability Discovered in Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC) Software's Web Management Interface

Recently, a critical vulnerability, CVE-2022-20925, has been discovered in the web management interface of Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC) Software, which could potentially enable an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system. This vulnerability stems from inadequate validation of user-supplied parameters for specific API endpoints. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input to an affected API endpoint, resulting in the potential for the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the device with low system privileges. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would require valid credentials for a user with Device permissions, which by default, are limited to Administrators, Security Approvers, and Network Admins user accounts.

An example of a crafted input malicious payload sent to an affected API endpoint may look like this

POST /api/vulnerability/affected_endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-fmc.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=

{
   "command": "arbitrary_command",
   "parameter": "injected_payload"
}

For in-depth information on this vulnerability, consult the following resources

1. Cisco Security Advisory: CVE-2022-20925: Cisco Firepower Management Center Command Injection Vulnerability
2. CVE Details: CVE-2022-20925

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to follow these general steps

1. Obtain valid user credentials with Device permissions. These user accounts must have the necessary privileges (i.e., Administrators, Security Approvers, or Network Admins) to interact with affected API endpoints.

Identify vulnerable API endpoints and prepare a crafted input with malicious payload for execution.

3. Send the crafted input to the affected API endpoint, which will then trigger the execution of arbitrary commands on the device with low system privileges.

Mitigation

Cisco has released software updates to address this vulnerability, and administrators are highly encouraged to apply these updates immediately. In addition, Cisco advises that organizations should grant low-level system privileges only to trusted users and limit the exposure of affected APIs to contain potential risks.

Conclusion

CVE-2022-20925 is a critical vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC) Software that could potentially enable authenticated, remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the device's underlying operating system. System administrators should take this vulnerability seriously and urgently apply the released software updates from Cisco. Additionally, organizations should practice proper user privilege management to minimize the potential impact of this vulnerability.

Timeline

Published on: 11/15/2022 21:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/22/2022 00:45:00 UTC