A vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to send traffic that should be denied through an affected device.
This vulnerability is due to improper error handling when an affected device that is joining a cluster runs out of memory while replicating access control rules. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending traffic that should be blocked through the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass access controls and reach devices in protected networks.
Weakness
The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.
Extended Description
Access control involves the use of several protection mechanisms such as:
When any mechanism is not applied or otherwise fails, attackers can compromise the security of the product by gaining privileges, reading sensitive information, executing commands, evading detection, etc. There are two distinct behaviors that can introduce access control weaknesses:
Potential Mitigations
- Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
- Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
Related Attack Patterns
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