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The Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis and Response System (CS-MARS) software contains a default password for an undocumented administrative account. This password is set, without any user intervention, during installation of the software used by CS-MARS appliances, and is the same in all installations of the product. Users must be authenticated to the CS-MARS command line in order to utilize the default password to access the administrative account.
Software version 4.1.2 and earlier of CS-MARS are affected by this vulnerability. Customers running software version 4.1.3 or higher can mitigate the effects of this vulnerability by applying the workaround listed in this advisory. Cisco has made free software available to address this vulnerability for affected customers.
This advisory is posted at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20060111-mars.
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This section provides details on affected products.
Vulnerable Products
All versions of CS-MARS prior to version 4.1.3 are affected by this vulnerability.
To verify the version of CS-MARS software, use a SSH client to login into the system administration command line interface with pnadmin account and execute the version command.
prompt$ ssh pnadmin@192.168.1.1 pnadmin@192.168.1.1's password: Last login: Fri Dec 30 15:19:14 2005 from 192.168.1.2 CS MARS - Mitigation and Response System ? for list of commands [pnadmin]$ version 4.1.2 (2042)
Products Confirmed Not Vulnerable
No other Cisco products are currently known to be affected by this vulnerability.
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Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis and Response System (CS-MARS) is a security system that receives event logs from various network devices, correlates and analyzes the received data for security problems and reports the findings. In addition, CS-MARS can perform automated tasks to mitigate security problems. All CS-MARS appliances ship with a default password set for the undocumented administrative account root. This privileged account is intended to be used only by authorized Cisco development engineers for advanced debugging purposes. No direct remote access to the root account is permitted. In order to access a privileged system shell, users must first successfully login into the CS-MARS system administration command line interface with the pnadmin account. Once authenticated, the root account can be accessed with the undocumented command expert.
Prior to CS-MARS version 4.1.3, users do not have a method to modify the root password. CS-MARS versions 4.1.3 and later provide the command passwd expert, which allows users to modify a portion of the root password providing additional security. The selected user password is combined with a Cisco controlled component to form a new root password. After performing this step, neither Cisco personnel or the user can access the root account without knowledge of both components used to create the root password. When authorized Cisco development engineers need access to the root account for advanced debugging, both Cisco and the user will need to enter their portion of the configured root password to enable access. Please refer to the Workarounds section of this advisory for more information.
This vulnerability is documented in Cisco Bug ID CSCsc83940 ( registered customers only) .
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The vulnerability described in this advisory can be mitigated by first upgrading the software on CS-MARS appliances to version 4.1.3 and then using the passwd expert command to modify the root password.
CS-MARS appliances can be upgraded via the HTTPS management interface or system administration command line. Please refer to the CS-MARS product documentation for instructions on how to upgrade the software. While the documentation refers to CS-MARS 4.x versions, the instructions are also applicable to CS-MARS 3.x versions.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6241/prod_installation_guides_list.html
Once a CS-MARS appliance is upgraded to version 4.1.3, the root password can be modified using the passwd expert command. Using a SSH client, login into the CS-MARS system administration interface with the pnadmin account and use the passwd expert command to select a new password. The selected password must be at least six characters long.
prompt$ ssh pnadmin@192.168.1.1 pnadmin@192.168.1.1's password: Last login: Fri Dec 30 19:45:51 2005 from 192.168.1.2 CS MARS - Mitigation and Response System ? for list of commands [pnadmin]$ passwd expert New password: Retype new password:
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When considering software upgrades, also consult http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt and any subsequent advisories to determine exposure and a complete upgrade solution.
In all cases, customers should exercise caution to be certain the devices to be upgraded contain sufficient memory and that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release. If the information is not clear, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center ("TAC") or your contracted maintenance provider for assistance.
CS-MARS version 4.1.3 and later contain the mitigation for this vulnerability. CS-MARS upgrades are incremental. All available updates must be applied in order to reach the most recent version. CS-MARS software updates can be obtained at the following site:
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/cs-mars?psrtdcat20e2
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The Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability described in this advisory.
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To learn about Cisco security vulnerability disclosure policies and publications, see the Security Vulnerability Policy. This document also contains instructions for obtaining fixed software and receiving security vulnerability information from Cisco.
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