A serious flaw in Cisco Systems software puts computer networks at risk of cyberattack and has prompted security vendor Symantec to raise its Internet threat level.
A vulnerability in Cisco's Internetwork Operating System could be exploited to crash or remotely run malicious code on devices that run IOS, the San Jose, Calif., networking giant warned Wednesday in a security advisory. IOS runs on Cisco's routers and switches, which make up a large portion of the Internet's infrastructure.
"Successful exploitation of the vulnerability on Cisco IOS may result in a reload of the device or execution of arbitrary code," Cisco said in its advisory. "Repeated exploitation could result in a sustained (denial of service) attack or execution of arbitrary code."
Cisco's warning prompted Symantec to raise its ThreatCon global threat index to Level 2, which means an attack is expected. "Given the recent attention to exploitation of vulnerabilities in Cisco's IOS it is possible that this issue will see attempts at exploit development in the near term," Symantec said in an advisory.
Symantec and Cisco both noted that there are no known exploits or attacks that take advantage of this latest IOS vulnerability. Cisco has software fixes available to correct the problem.
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