Cisco Smart Licensing Utility Vulnerabilities – Source:sec.cloudapps.cisco.com

Critical

Summary

• Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Smart Licensing Utility could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to collect sensitive information or administer Cisco Smart Licensing Utility services on a system while the software is running.

  Cisco has released software updates that address these vulnerabilities. There are no workarounds that address these vulnerabilities.

  For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

  This advisory is available at the following link:
  https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-cslu-7gHMzWmw

Affected Products

• These vulnerabilities affect systems if they are running a vulnerable release of Cisco Smart Licensing Utility, regardless of software configuration.

  Note: These vulnerabilities are not exploitable unless Cisco Smart Licensing Utility was started by a user and is actively running.

  For information about which Cisco software releases are vulnerable, see the Fixed Software section of this advisory.

  Only products listed in the Vulnerable Products section of this advisory are known to be affected by these vulnerabilities.

  Cisco has confirmed that these vulnerabilities do not affect the following Cisco products:

  • Smart Software Manager On-Prem
  • Smart Software Manager Satellite

Details

• The vulnerabilities are not dependent on one another. Exploitation of one of the vulnerabilities is not required to exploit the other vulnerability. In addition, a software release that is affected by one of the vulnerabilities may not be affected by the other vulnerability.

  Details about the vulnerabilities are as follows:

  CVE-2024-20439: Cisco Smart Licensing Utility Static Credential Vulnerability

  A vulnerability in Cisco Smart Licensing Utility could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to an affected system by using a static administrative credential.

  This vulnerability is due to an undocumented static user credential for an administrative account. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the static credentials to log in to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected system with administrative privileges over the API of the Cisco Smart Licensing Utility application.

  Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

  Bug ID(s): CSCwi41731
  CVE ID: CVE-2024-20439
  Security Impact Rating (SIR): Critical
  CVSS Base Score: 9.8
  CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  CVE-2024-20440: Cisco Smart Licensing Utility Information Disclosure Vulnerability

  A vulnerability in Cisco Smart Licensing Utility could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access sensitive information.

  This vulnerability is due to excessive verbosity in a debug log file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain log files that contain sensitive data, including credentials that can be used to access the API.

  Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

  Bug ID(s): CSCwi47950
  CVE ID: CVE-2024-20440
  Security Impact Rating (SIR): Critical
  CVSS Base Score: 9.8
  CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Workarounds

• There are no workarounds that address these vulnerabilities.

Fixed Software

• Cisco has released free software updates that address the vulnerabilities described in this advisory. Customers with service contracts that entitle them to regular software updates should obtain security fixes through their usual update channels.

  Customers may only install and expect support for software versions and feature sets for which they have purchased a license. By installing, downloading, accessing, or otherwise using such software upgrades, customers agree to follow the terms of the Cisco software license:
  https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/end-user-license-agreement.html

  Additionally, customers may only download software for which they have a valid license, procured from Cisco directly, or through a Cisco authorized reseller or partner. In most cases this will be a maintenance upgrade to software that was previously purchased. Free security software updates do not entitle customers to a new software license, additional software feature sets, or major revision upgrades.

  The Cisco Support and Downloads page on Cisco.com provides information about licensing and downloads. This page can also display customer device support coverage for customers who use the My Devices tool.

  When considering software upgrades, customers are advised to regularly consult the advisories for Cisco products, which are available from the Cisco Security Advisories page, to determine exposure and a complete upgrade solution.

  In all cases, customers should ensure that the devices to be upgraded contain sufficient memory and confirm that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release. If the information is not clear, customers are advised to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or their contracted maintenance providers.

  Customers Without Service Contracts

  Customers who purchase directly from Cisco but do not hold a Cisco service contract and customers who make purchases through third-party vendors but are unsuccessful in obtaining fixed software through their point of sale should obtain upgrades by contacting the Cisco TAC: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-worldwide-contacts.html

  Customers should have the product serial number available and be prepared to provide the URL of this advisory as evidence of entitlement to a free upgrade.

  Fixed Releases

  In the following table, the left column lists Cisco software release. The right column indicates whether a release is affected by these vulnerabilities and the first release that includes the fix for these vulnerabilities. Customers are advised to upgrade to an appropriate fixed software release as indicated in this section.

  Cisco Smart License Utility Release	First Fixed Release
  2.0.0	Migrate to a fixed release.
  2.1.0	Migrate to a fixed release.
  2.2.0	Migrate to a fixed release.
  2.3.0	Not vulnerable.

  The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) validates only the affected and fixed release information that is documented in this advisory.

Exploitation and Public Announcements

• In March 2025, the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) became aware of attempted exploitation of this vulnerability in the wild. Cisco continues to strongly recommend that customers upgrade to a fixed software release to remediate this vulnerability.

Source

• These vulnerabilities were found by Eric Vance of Cisco during internal security testing.

Cisco Security Vulnerability Policy

• To learn about Cisco security vulnerability disclosure policies and publications, see the Security Vulnerability Policy. This document also contains instructions for obtaining fixed software and receiving security vulnerability information from Cisco.

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Related to This Advisory

URL

• https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-cslu-7gHMzWmw

Revision History

• Version	Description	Section	Status	Date
  1.1	Updated to reflect that Cisco is aware of exploitation.	Exploitation and Public Announcements	Final	2025-APR-01
  1.0	Initial public release.	–	Final	2024-SEP-04

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