CVE-2023-20012 Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 Series Fabric Extender for UCS Fabric Interconnects Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Medium 5.3 Published 23 Feb 2023 Updated 25 Oct 2024

An attacker with physical access can bypass CLI authentication on Cisco Nexus FEX devices to execute limited commands, potentially causing a denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2023-20012?

CVE-2023-20012 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Cisco Unified Computing System (Managed), published on 23 Feb 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in the CLI console login authentication of Cisco Nexus 9300-FX3 Series Fabric Extender (FEX) when used in UCS Fabric Interconnect deployments could allow an unauthenticated attacker with physical access to bypass authentication. This vulnerability is due to the improper implementation of the password validation function. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the console port on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass authentication and execute a limited set of commands local to the FEX, which could cause a device reboot and denial of service (DoS) condition.

Weakness: CWE-287

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20012?

It affects 6 products.

Products include Cisco Nexus 93180yc-Fx3 Firmware, Cisco Nexus 93180yc-Fx3s Firmware, Cisco Ucs 64108 Firmware, Cisco Ucs 6454 Firmware, Cisco Ucs 6536 Firmware, Cisco Ucs Central Software.

How do I fix CVE-2023-20012?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20012 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2023-20012 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20012 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-w6qv-pc93-vvwj.