Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Multi-Instance Container Escape Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the multi-instance feature of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to escape the container for their Cisco FTD instance and execute commands with root privileges in the host namespace. The attacker must have valid credentials on the device.

The vulnerability exists because a configuration file that is used at container startup has insufficient protections. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying a specific container configuration file on the underlying file system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands with root privileges within the host namespace. This could allow the attacker to impact other running Cisco FTD instances or the host Cisco FXOS device.

Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-container-esc-FmYqFBQV [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-container-esc-FmYqFBQV”]

This advisory is part of the October 2020 Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication, which includes 17 Cisco Security Advisories that describe 17 vulnerabilities. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: October 2020 Cisco ASA, FMC, and FTD Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication [“https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/viewErp.x?alertId=ERP-74302”].