Cisco patches a dozen router bugs

By Robert McMillan

September 23, 2009 03:19 PM ET

Comments

(0)

Top Stories

IDG News Service - Cisco Systems has released its twice-yearly set of security patches for its router firmware, fixing 12 security flaws in the products.

Cisco describes the bugs in 11 security advisories, released Wednesday, saying that they affect routers and switches that use the Cisco Unified Communications Manager, as well as a variety of services in the devices' underlying Cisco IOS operating system.

"Exploits of the individual vulnerabilities could result in two different impacts, a breach in confidentiality or a denial of service," Cisco said in a note describing the updates, posted to its Web site on Wednesday.

Among the patches is a fix for an IOS bug that could let an attacker bypass access control policies on devices that use the Object Groups for ACL feature, Cisco said. This could give an attacker access to parts of the network that they shouldn't be allowed to reach.

Cisco is patching so many bugs at once because, like other major technology vendors, it now releases its security updates on pre-set days. This makes it easier for IT staff to plan its patching.

Cisco's updates come on the fourth Wednesday of March and September each year, meaning that the next IOS patches are due March 24, 2010.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Cisco Systems

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.