CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-0121 — Cisco Elastic Services Controller security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

A vulnerability in the authentication functionality of the web-based service portal of Cisco Elastic Services Controller Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary actions with administrator privileges on an affected system. The vulnerability is due to improper security restrictions that are imposed by the web-based service portal of the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting an empty password value to an affected portal when prompted to enter an administrative password for the portal. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass authentication and gain administrator privileges for the web-based service portal of the affected software. This vulnerability affects Cisco Elastic Services Controller Software Release 3.0.0. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvg29809.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2018-02-22
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • cisco / elastic_services_controller / 3.0.0
  • cisco / virtual_managed_services / 3.0

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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