CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2019-12709 — Cisco Ios Xr security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

A vulnerability in a CLI command related to the virtualization manager (VMAN) in Cisco IOS XR Software for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying Linux operating system with root privileges. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of arguments passed to a specific VMAN CLI command on an affected device. An attacker who has valid administrator access to an affected device could exploit this vulnerability by including malicious input as the argument of an affected command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to run arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with root privileges, which may lead to complete system compromise.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (2.0)
Published
2019-09-25
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-78

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xr

Showing 1 representative product identities from 2 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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