# CVE-2017-6781: Privilege escalation in Policy Suite

> An authenticated local attacker can gain elevated privileges on Cisco Policy Suite appliances by exploiting incorrect role-based access control in shell user account management.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Aug 2017
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c787-vq26-34f6

## What is CVE-2017-6781?

CVE-2017-6781 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Systems, Inc. Policy Suite, published on 17 Aug 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the management of shell user accounts for Cisco Policy Suite (CPS) Software for CPS appliances could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain elevated privileges on an affected system. The affected privilege level is not at the root level. The vulnerability is due to incorrect role-based access control (RBAC) for shell user accounts. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to an affected appliance and providing crafted user input via the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to acquire a higher privilege level than should have been granted. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must log in to the appliance with valid credentials. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve37724. Known Affected Releases: 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 10.0.0, 11.0.0, 12.0.0.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-6781?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Policy Suite.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-6781?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-6781 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-6781 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Systems, Inc. Policy Suite

- [CVE-2021-40119](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40119/): Cisco Policy Suite Static SSH Keys Vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-6623](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6623/): Privilege escalation in Cisco Policy Suite (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-0089](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0089/): Information disclosure in Cisco Policy Suite (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-6781 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-6781 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Systems, Inc. Policy Suite, published on 17 Aug 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-6781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Systems, Inc. Policy Suite. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6781/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6781/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-6781
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-6781
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-6781

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6781/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.