Application delivery networking company F5, has issued patches for 29 vulnerabilities in its products, including one that scored 9.9 on the CVSS scale.
The flaws were severe and numerous enough for CISA to warn administrators to update software as soon as possible.
F5 Networks BIG-IP flaw is the latest to be exploited by hackers TerraMaster F5-221 review: A big NAS on a small budget F5 Networks in the city HP team with F5 Networks to speed up cloud app deployment
The bugs affect the company’s BIG-IP and BIG-IQ ranges of products and have been issued as part of this month’s round of security updates.
In one flaw, assigned CVE-2021-23031, an authenticated user may perform a privilege escalation on BIG-IP Advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Application Security Manager Traffic Management User Interface (ASM TMUI). This bug has been given a CVSS score of 8.8. However, when the product is in “Appliance Mode,” it receives a secondary score of 9.9 (out of 10).
According to F5, the Appliance Mode is “designed to meet the needs of customers in especially sensitive sectors by limiting the BIG-IP system administrative access to match that of a typical network appliance and not a multi-user UNIX device.”
“When this vulnerability is exploited, an authenticated attacker with access to the Configuration utility can execute arbitrary system commands, create or delete files, and/or disable services. This vulnerability may result in complete system compromise,” F5 said in an explainer for this bug.
“As this attack is conducted by legitimate, authenticated users, there is no viable mitigation that also allows users access to the Configuration utility. The only mitigation is to remove access for users who are not completely trusted.”
The advisory doesn’t detail why there are two ratings, but it did say there’s a “limited number of customers” affected by the more severe variation of the flaw.
F5 said any customers running a version of the affected product could eliminate the vulnerability by installing a version listed in its advisory. To mitigate issues until a fixed version is installed, users can follow temporary measures that “restrict access to the Configuration utility to only trusted networks or devices, thereby limiting the attack surface.”
Other flaws mentioned in the notification range from denial of service, request forgery to cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and authenticated remote command execution.
F5 recommended its customers update or upgrade their BIG-IP appliances to at least BIG-IP 14.1.0 and their BIG-IP VEs to at least BIG-IP 15.1.0.
-
Licensed mmWave: Opportunity or overhead?Industry Insights Ofcom’s latest mmWave auction unlocks major new capacity for 5G and FWA, offering a faster, more flexible complement to fiber - especially in dense urban areas
-
CISA issues alert as China-linked hackers exploit Brickstorm malware to target VMware serversNews Organizations, particularly in the critical infrastructure, government services, and facilities and IT sectors, need to be wary of Brickstorm
-
Security experts claim the CVE Program isn’t up to scratch anymore — inaccurate scores and lengthy delays mean the system needs updatedNews CVE data is vital in combating emerging threats, yet inaccurate ratings and lengthy wait times are placing enterprises at risk
-
IBM AIX users urged to patch immediately as researchers sound alarm on critical flawsNews Network administrators should patch the four IBM AIX flaws as soon as possible
-
Critical Dell Storage Manager flaws could let hackers access sensitive data – patch nowNews A trio of flaws in Dell Storage Manager has prompted a customer alert
-
Flaw in Lenovo’s customer service AI chatbot could let hackers run malicious code, breach networksNews Hackers abusing the Lenovo flaw could inject malicious code with just a single prompt
-
Industry welcomes the NCSC’s new Vulnerability Research Initiative – but does it go far enough?News The cybersecurity agency will work with external researchers to uncover potential security holes in hardware and software
-
Hackers are targeting Ivanti VPN users again – here’s what you need to knowNews Ivanti has re-patched a security flaw in its Connect Secure VPN appliances that's been exploited by a China-linked espionage group since at least the middle of March.
-
Broadcom issues urgent alert over three VMware zero-daysNews The firm says it has information to suggest all three are being exploited in the wild
-
Nakivo backup flaw still present on some systems months after firms’ ‘silent patch’, researchers claimNews Over 200 vulnerable Nakivo backup instances have been identified months after the firm silently patched a security flaw.
