CVE-2022-20965 - Cisco Identity Services Engine Unauthorized Privilege Control Vulnerability and Its Exploitation

A critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2022-20965, has been discovered in the web-based management interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). This vulnerability could potentially allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform privileged actions within the web-based management interface. The vulnerability stems from improper access control within a feature of the web-based management interface, which, if exploited, could enable attackers to bypass certain application checks and access sensitive features through direct requests.

The following article provides a detailed description of CVE-2022-20965, including code snippets, links to original references, and a breakdown of the exploit details.

Vulnerability Details

The Cisco Identity Services Engine is designed to provide network access control and security policy management across an organization's infrastructure. The web-based management interface is a critical component used to manage and monitor ISE deployments. However, in this discovered vulnerability, CVE-2022-20965, the improper access control within the interface could allow attackers to perform privileged actions that should otherwise be restricted.

Exploit Details

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious HTTP requests directly to the ISE web-based management interface, bypassing the built-in access control mechanisms. Successful exploitation would grant the attacker unauthorized access to perform privileged actions within the application.

The following code snippet illustrates a sample attack exploiting CVE-2022-20965

import requests

target_url = "https://<target_ise_address>/admin/API/malicious_endpoint";
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Basic <base64-encoded_credentials>",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
    "exploit_payload": "..."
}

response = requests.post(target_url, headers=headers, json=data)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Exploit successful")
else:
    print("Exploit failed")

Please note that the code provided is for informational purposes only and should not be used for malicious activities.

Original References

1. Cisco Advisory: https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-dos-swvp-LrxB8HDR
2. NIST National Vulnerability Database: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-20965
3. CWE - Improper Access Control: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/284.html

Mitigation

The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) has been actively working to provide patches and updates to resolve this vulnerability. Administrators of ISE deployments are advised to regularly monitor the Cisco Advisory and apply the updates as soon as they become available.

It is also recommended that network administrators limit network access to the ISE web-based management interface using access control lists (ACLs) and restrict remote access to trusted sources only. This will help minimize the potential attack surface for this vulnerability.

Conclusion

CVE-2022-20965 represents a severe vulnerability in the Cisco Identity Services Engine web-based management interface that could allow malicious remote attackers to bypass application checks and perform privileged actions. By staying informed about this vulnerability and applying the necessary updates and security measures, network administrators can protect their ISE deployments and maintain a secure network environment.

Timeline

Published on: 01/20/2023 07:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 01/26/2023 18:03:00 UTC