Static SSH host key in Cisco Umbrella allows stealing admin credentials

Cisco addressed a high severity vulnerability in the Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance (VA) that could allow stealing admin credentials.

Cisco addressed a high severity vulnerability in the Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance (VA), tracked as CVE-2022-20773, that could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker to steal admin credentials remotely.

Umbrella is Cisco’s cloud-based Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) platform that provides users with multiple levels of defense against internet-based threats. Umbrella integrates secure web gateway, firewall, DNS-layer security, and cloud access security broker (CASB) functionality to protect systems against threats.

The CVE-2022-20773 flaw resides in the key-based SSH authentication mechanism of Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance and is due to the presence of a static SSH host key.

“This vulnerability is due to the presence of a static SSH host key. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by performing a man-in-the-middle attack on an SSH connection to the Umbrella VA. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to learn the administrator credentials, change configurations, or reload the VA.” reads the advisory published by Cisco.

The IT giant pointed out that SSH is not enabled by default on the Umbrella VA.

The flaw affects the Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance for both VMWare ESXi and Hyper-V running a software version earlier than 3.3.2. Customers should upgrade to the appropriate fixed software release:

Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance Software Release	First Fixed Release
3.2 and earlier	Migrate to a fixed release.
3.3	3.3.2

The company states that there are no workarounds or mitigations available for this issue. The good news is that the Cisco PSIRT is not aware of attacks in the wild that exploited this vulnerability.

The company credited Fraser Hess of Pinnacol Assurance for reporting this vulnerability.

Please vote for Security Affairs as the best European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2022 – VOTE FOR YOUR WINNERS
Vote for me in the sections “The Underdogs – Best Personal (non-commercial) Security Blog” and “The Tech Whizz – Best Technical Blog” and others of your choice.
To nominate, please visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxxrxICiMZ9QM9iiPuMQIC-IoM-NpQMOsFZnJXrBQRYJGCOw/viewform

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″]

[adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Cisco)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.