A critical security flaw has been discovered in the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) multi-site CloudSec encryption feature that could allow hackers to read or modify encrypted traffic between sites.
This vulnerability (CVE-2023-20185) affects Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Fabric Switches running Release 14.0 and later, especially when they are part of a multi-site topology and have the CloudSec encryption feature enabled. To do.
Cisco disclosed the vulnerability on Wednesday, saying it was caused by an implementation issue with the ciphers used in the CloudSec encryption feature of the affected switches.
Although CloudSec encryption is designed to protect data transmitted between sites, this vulnerability could allow unauthenticated attackers located between ACI sites to intercept encrypted traffic. , Cisco said.
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“Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to read or modify traffic sent between sites,” the company said.
At this time, Cisco has not released any software updates that address this vulnerability and there are no workarounds.
“Customers currently using the Cisco ACI Multi-Site CloudSec Encryption feature on Cisco Nexus 9332C and Nexus 9364C switches and Cisco Nexus N9K-X9736C-FX line cards should disable it and contact their support organization for an alternative. We encourage you to evaluate your options,” advised Cisco.
By turning off this feature, organizations can minimize the risk of unauthorized access and potential data manipulation.
Of note, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches in standalone NX-OS mode are not vulnerable to this security flaw.
At this time, there are no known public announcements or exploits exploiting this vulnerability. Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) discovered this flaw during internal security testing.
Cisco’s recommendation comes just weeks after a Florida man pleaded guilty to making more than $100 million from importing and selling counterfeit Cisco network devices.
