Cisco patches a critical patch on its software-license manager

Cisco this week said it patched a “critical” patch for its Prime License Manager (PLM) software that would let attackers execute random SQL queries.

The Cisco Prime License Manager offers enterprise-wide management of user-based licensing, including license fulfillment.

Released in November, the first version of the Prime License Manager patch caused its own “functional” problems that Cisco was then forced to fix. That patch, called ciscocm.CSCvk30822_v1.0.k3.cop.sgn addressed the SQL vulnerability but caused backup, upgrade and restore problems, and should no longer be used Cisco said.

Cisco wrote that “customers who have previously installed the ciscocm. CSCvk30822_v1.0.k3.cop.sgn patch should upgrade to the ciscocm.CSCvk30822_v2.0.k3.cop.sgn patch to remediate the functional issues. Installing the v2.0 patch will first rollback the v1.0 patch and then install the v2.0 patch.” 

As for the vulnerability that started this process, Cisco says it “is due to a lack of proper validation of user-supplied input in SQL queries. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP POST requests that contain malicious SQL statements to an affected application. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to modify and delete arbitrary data in the PLM database or gain shell access with the privileges of the postgres [SQL] user.”

The vulnerability impacts Cisco Prime License Manager Releases 11.0.1 and later.