Cisco Secure Boot Hardware Tampering Vulnerability (CVE-2019-1649)
Published Sources: CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
A vulnerability in the logic that handles access control to one of the hardware components in Cisco's proprietary Secure Boot implementation could allow an authenticated, local attacker to write a modified firmware image to the component. This vulnerability affects multiple Cisco products that support hardware-based Secure Boot functionality.
Update Cisco Routers to version 16.12.1.
- Affected
- Cisco Routers
lt *..16.12.1
- Cisco Routers
- Fixed in
- Cisco Routers
16.12.1
- Cisco Routers
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Metrics
6.7
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: NVD, CVSS v3
6.7
CVSS v3
Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: CVE.org
0.6 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 49.3
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Medium
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 52.94 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 6.7 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 6.7
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.6 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 49.3
- High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: total
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 20 November 2024
CWE
CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.
Read in glossary- CWE-284
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
A vulnerability in the logic that handles access control to one of the hardware components in Cisco's proprietary Secure Boot implementation could allow an authenticated, local attacker to write a modified firmware image to the component. This vulnerability affects multiple Cisco products that support hardware-based Secure Boot functionality. The vulnerability is due to an improper check on the area of code that manages on-premise updates to a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) part of the Secure Boot hardware implementation. An attacker with elevated privileges and access to the underlying operating system that is running on the affected device could exploit this vulnerability by writing a modified firmware image to the FPGA. A successful exploit could either cause the device to become unusable (and require a hardware replacement) or allow tampering with the Secure Boot verification process, which under some circumstances may allow the attacker to install and boot a malicious software image. An attacker will need to fulfill all the following conditions to attempt to exploit this vulnerability: Have privileged administrative access to the device. Be able to access the underlying operating system running on the device; this can be achieved either by using a supported, documented mechanism or by exploiting another vulnerability that would provide an attacker with such access. Develop or have access to a platform-specific exploit. An attacker attempting to exploit this vulnerability across multiple affected platforms would need to research each one of those platforms and then develop a platform-specific exploit. Although the research process could be reused across different platforms, an exploit developed for a given hardware platform is unlikely to work on a different hardware platform.
Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco | Cisco Routers |
|
|
Vendors and products
Affected operating systems
| Mobile | cisco | ios | — |
| Mobile | cisco | ios_xe | — |
| Mobile | cisco | ios_xr | 7.0.1 |
| Mobile | cisco | ios_xr | 7.1.1 |
| Other | cisco | 15454-m-wse-k9_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | analog_voice_network_interface_modules_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | asa_5500_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | asr_1000_series_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | asr_1001_firmware | 16.0.0 |
| Other | cisco | catalyst_9800-40_wireless_controller_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | catalyst_9800-80_wireless_controller_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | encs_5100_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | encs_5400_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | firepower_2100_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | firepower_4000_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | firepower_9000_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | ic3000-k9_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | industrial_security_appliances_3000_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | integrated_services_router_4200_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | integrated_services_router_4300_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | integrated_services_router_4400_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | integrated_services_router_t1\/e1_voice_and_wan_network_interface_modules_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | ncs2k-mr-mxp-k9_firmware | — |
| Other | cisco | nx-os | — |
Weakness classes (CWE)
CWE-284Improper Access Control
Pillar
The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.
Entry at MITRE CWE-284
References & sources
- tools.cisco.com20190513 Cisco Secure Boot Hardware Tampering VulnerabilityVendor advisory, x_refsource_CISCO, Vendor advisory
- kb.cert.orgVU#400865Third-party advisory, x_refsource_CERT-VN, Third-party advisory, US government resource
- securityfocus.com108350Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
- us-cert.govics/advisories/icsa-20-072-03x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory, US government resource
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2019-1649"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2019-1649.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2019-1649 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>