Many Cisco security appliances contain default, authorized SSH keys that can allow an attacker to connect to an appliance and take almost any action he chooses. The company said all of its Web Security Virtual Appliances, Email Security Virtual Appliances, and Content Security Management Virtual Appliances are affected by the vulnerability.
This bug is about as serious as they come for enterprises. An attacker who is able to discover the default SSH key would have virtually free reign on vulnerable boxes, which, given Cisco's market share and presence in the enterprise worldwide, is likely a high number. Threatpost.com writes that the default key was inserted into the software for support reasons.
Cisco says, "The vulnerability is due to the presence of a default authorized SSH key that is shared across all the installations of WSAv, ESAv, and SMAv. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by obtaining the SSH private key and using it to connect to any WSAv, ESAv, or SMAv. An exploit could allow the attacker to access the system with the privileges of the root user."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @06:02PM
More likely a public key stuffed into /root/.ssh/authorized_keys.
This is, as another commenter stated, a back-door for Cisco / anybody else with access to the corresponding private key.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday June 27 2015, @06:44PM
anybody else with access to the corresponding private key.
And that suggests a breach at cisco, or someone reverse-engineered the private key.
TFA is giving us only PART of the story here. The part Cisco has omitted is the interesting part.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.