CVE-2017-12337

published 2017-11-16

CVE-2017-12337: A vulnerability in the upgrade mechanism of Cisco collaboration products based on the Cisco Voice Operating System software platform could allow an…

Priority P2 68 critical 9.8 CVSS 3.0

AV N AC L PR N UI N S U C H I H A H

A vulnerability in the upgrade mechanism of Cisco collaboration products based on the Cisco Voice Operating System software platform could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized, elevated access to an affected device. The vulnerability occurs when a refresh upgrade (RU) or Prime Collaboration Deployment (PCD) migration is performed on an affected device. When a refresh upgrade or PCD migration is completed successfully, an engineering flag remains enabled and could allow root access to the device with a known password. If the vulnerable device is subsequently upgraded using the standard upgrade method to an Engineering Special Release, service update, or a new major release of the affected product, this vulnerability is remediated by that action. Note: Engineering Special Releases that are installed as COP files, as opposed to the standard upgrade method, do not remediate this vulnerability. An attacker who can access an affected device over SFTP while it is in a vulnerable state could gain root access to the device. This access could allow the attacker to compromise the affected system completely. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvg22923, CSCvg55112, CSCvg55128, CSCvg55145, CSCvg58619, CSCvg64453, CSCvg64456, CSCvg64464, CSCvg64475, CSCvg68797.

Affected

1 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
cisco	voice_operating_system-based_products_unauthorized_access	—	—

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

• → Monitor for unauthenticated or unexpected SFTP connections to Cisco Voice Operating System-based devices, which may indicate exploitation attempts leveraging the known root password left active after a refresh upgrade or PCD migration. ↗
• → Detect devices in a vulnerable state by checking whether a refresh upgrade (RU) or Prime Collaboration Deployment (PCD) migration was recently completed without a subsequent standard upgrade — the engineering flag remains enabled post-migration. ↗
• → Note that Engineering Special Releases installed as COP files do NOT remediate the vulnerability; audit upgrade method used to confirm remediation status. ↗

• · The vulnerability is introduced specifically after a refresh upgrade (RU) or Prime Collaboration Deployment (PCD) migration — devices that have not undergone these processes are not affected by this specific post-upgrade flag condition. ↗
• · Remediation via standard upgrade (Engineering Special Release, service update, or new major release) closes the vulnerability, but COP file-based Engineering Special Release installs do NOT. ↗
• · Root access is possible using a *known* (static/hardcoded) password when the engineering flag is active — this is not a brute-force scenario but a fixed credential exposure. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v3.0 9.8 CRITICAL CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd v2.0 10.0 CRITICAL AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

vendor_cisco 9.8 CRITICAL

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CWE-287