Cisco Unified Computing System Baseboard Management Controller Arbitrary Command Execution Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the fabric interconnect (FI) of Cisco Unified Computing System could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) with elevated privileges.

The vulnerability is due to improper input validation in the MCTOOLS command in the FI software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by gaining local, shell-level, or debug-level access to the underlying operating system on the FI and injecting commands into the MCTOOLS commands that would be sent to the BMC. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the BMC with elevated privileges.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability in a security notice and has released software updates.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker requires authenticated access to the targeted system. Authenticated access may require the attacker to access trusted, internal networks. These access requirements could limit the likelihood of a successful exploit.

Cisco indicates through the CVSS score that functional exploit code exists; however, the code is not known to be publicly available.