Cisco MARS Information Disclosure Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the configuration of the XML parser of the Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis and Response System (MARS) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to have “read” access to part of information stored in the affected system.

The vulnerability is due to improper handling of XML External Entity (XXE) when parsing an XML file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by convincing the administrator of an affected system to import a crafted XML file. In order to succeed, the attacker would also need to own a server that have to be reachable from the Cisco MARS management IP address and that is used to retrieve the information sent from the affected system

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability; however, software updates are not available.

Successful exploitation requires an attacker to own a server reachable from a device running the affected software IP address that is used to retrieve information sent from the affected system. The attacker would likely need access to a trusted, internal network to achieve this objective. This access requirement decreases the likelihood of a successful exploit.

Customers are advised to review the bug report in the vendor announcements section for a current list of affected versions.