The Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) has advised Nigerians assess their possible exposure to multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco products which may compromise online security.
The advisory was contained in a statement by the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka on Friday which stated that, the vulnerability was rated high in impact and probability.
CSIRT is the telecom sector’s cyber security incidence centre set up by the NCC to focus on incidents in the telecom sector as they may affect telecom consumers and citizens at large.
It also works collaboratively with ngCERT, established by the Federal Government to reduce the volume of future computer risk incidents by preparing, protecting, and securing Nigerian cyberspace to forestall attacks, and problems or related events.
According to the statement, the advisory was timely in order to review alerts for Cisco products, assess exposure and find a comprehensive update solution.
The advisory recommended using appropriate software updates that are accessible from the vendor website, follow the identification of multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Products, especially the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows, which enables employees to access company servers from anywhere without compromising security.
It added that, the two vulnerabilities made it possible for a remote attacker exploit to trigger remote code execution and data manipulation on the targeted system.
The Advisory reads, “The weaknesses in the product include uncontrolled search path and Dynamic Link Library (DLL) hijacking vulnerabilities. The uncontrolled search path vulnerability results from incorrect handling of directory paths. A directory path is a string of characters used to uniquely identify a location in a folder structure.
“This flaw could be exploited by an attacker by generating a malicious file and copying it to a system directory (folder). An exploit could enable the attacker to copy malicious files with system-level privileges to any location. The attacker needs legitimate Windows system credentials to exploit this vulnerability.
“Moreover, to exploit the DLL hijacking vulnerability, the attacker would also need to have valid credentials on the Windows system. The vulnerability was caused by the device’s inadequate run-time resource validation. By sending the AnyConnect process a specially designed IPC message, an attacker might take advantage of this vulnerability.”
