Cisco releases three patches for Internet infrastructure

Corporate IT Update, Jan 26, 2007

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Three patches have been released by Cisco, a networking equipment and network management company which makes hardware for much of the Internet backbone, to fix security holes in its products.

Cisco has released the patches to ISPs who are expected to rollout repairs in the very near future, however concerns have been raised that hackers could exploit the vulnerabilities in the routers before the issues are resolved.

Security company F-Secure said the patches only affect the Internet infrastructure, the routers used by companies to pass net traffic on, and claimed some sites and services may be down.

Cisco said it is not aware of any present exploitation of the vulnerabilities which may affect Cisco IOS and IOS XR devices and confirmed three security advisories have been published. It has made free software available to allow affected customers to address the flaws.

Although one of the vulnerabilities could reportedly enable a hacker to gain control of a Cisco router in order to install software, it is thought attacks will be limited due to the lack of financial incentive.

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