Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Get Ready for Virtual Wireless LANs
I was recently in Boston to participate in a seminar that was produced by Blue Socket and IBM. The focus of the seminar was virtual wireless LANs. At first blush, the thought of a virtual wireless LAN seems a bit strange. One obvious question is ‘how do you virtualize an access point?” The quick answer is that you don’t. The thrust of the seminar was on the need to separate the control and data plane of a wireless LAN switch in a fashion similar to the Cisco Nexus 1000V. In addition, there is distinct value in virtualizing the controller software and hence creating a virtual wireless LAN. In particular, virtualizing the controller has a number of benefits, including reducing the acquisition cost and making it easier to add capacity as needed.
We are going to follow up the seminar with a Webinar on Sept 30th, at 12pm (EST). Feel free to join us to enjoy an engaging discussion about the benefits of cloud networking, virtualization and virtual wireless LANs.
To sign up go to : http://web06.echomail.com/web02/l.docid=15&mid=948&e=bbe21~ubgznvy.pbz&t=1073
Below is a more formal description of the Webinar:
Whether you're a large enterprise or small to medium business, you'll soon be benefiting from virtualizing your IT organization. Join this discussion to learn how you can consolidate your virtual efforts across the IT organization to build a smarter network that is cost-efficient and future proof. This webinar, moderated by Jim Metzler, will feature Patrick Foy who will talk to us about Virtualizing your WLAN. Expect to hear everything you need to know about Virtual Wireless LANs.
* Recognize what can be virtualized and the advantages of virtualizing them
* Get exposed to the challenges of server virtualization
* Listen and interact with the folks who dare to ask the right questions and develop best practices.
* Understand what is meant by Virtual Wireless LAN and how it can become part of your virtual strategy today
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Cisco wireless controllers open to attack: Jim Duffy, Network World
Cisco wireless controllers open to attack
Advisory describes seven vulnerabilities with no workarounds
By Jim Duffy on Thu, 09/09/10 - 4:03pm.
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Cisco this week issued a security advisory for its wireless LAN controllers, which are susceptible to seven vulnerabilities including denial of service, privilege escalation and access control list bypass. The advisory can be found here.
The affected products include the Cisco 2000, 2100, 4100, 4400 and 5500 series controllers; Wireless Services Modules (WiSMs); wireless LAN controller modules for the Cisco Integrated Services Routers; and integrated controllers for the Catalyst 3750G switch. The products are affected by at least one of the seven vulnerabilities.
There are two DoS vulnerabilities, three privilege vulnerabilities and two ACL bypass holes. The DoS vulnerabilities are an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) DoS Vulnerability and an HTTP DoS Vulnerability.
The IKE glitch allows an attacker with the ability to send a malicious IKE packet to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to crash and reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments.
IKE is enabled by default in the controllers and cannot be disabled, the Cisco advisory states. Only traffic destined to the Cisco controller could trigger this vulnerability, not transient traffic, according to the advisory.
The IKE DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 3.2 and later.
The HTTP hole allows an authenticated attacker with the ability to send a series of malicious HTTP packets to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments. A TCP three-way handshake is needed in order to exploit this vulnerability, the advisory states.
This vulnerability is also triggered by traffic destined for the controller, not transient traffic.
The HTTP DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The three privilege escalation vulnerabilities could allow an authenticated attacker with read-only privileges to modify the device configuration. The privilege escalation vulnerabilities affect Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The ACL vulnerabilities involve traffic to and from wireless clients or to all traffic destined for the controller CPU. The vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to bypass policies that should be enforced by CPU-based ACLs. No other ACL types are affected by these vulnerabilities, the Cisco advisory states.
One of the two ACL bypass vulnerabilities affects Cisco controller software versions 4.1 and later. The second ACL bypass vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 6.0.x.
Cisco says it has released free software updates that address these vulnerabilities. There are no workarounds to mitigate them, the company says. Cisco also says it is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerabilities, which were found during internal testing and troubleshooting of customer service requests.
Advisory describes seven vulnerabilities with no workarounds
By Jim Duffy on Thu, 09/09/10 - 4:03pm.
Newsletter Signup
Cisco this week issued a security advisory for its wireless LAN controllers, which are susceptible to seven vulnerabilities including denial of service, privilege escalation and access control list bypass. The advisory can be found here.
The affected products include the Cisco 2000, 2100, 4100, 4400 and 5500 series controllers; Wireless Services Modules (WiSMs); wireless LAN controller modules for the Cisco Integrated Services Routers; and integrated controllers for the Catalyst 3750G switch. The products are affected by at least one of the seven vulnerabilities.
There are two DoS vulnerabilities, three privilege vulnerabilities and two ACL bypass holes. The DoS vulnerabilities are an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) DoS Vulnerability and an HTTP DoS Vulnerability.
The IKE glitch allows an attacker with the ability to send a malicious IKE packet to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to crash and reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments.
IKE is enabled by default in the controllers and cannot be disabled, the Cisco advisory states. Only traffic destined to the Cisco controller could trigger this vulnerability, not transient traffic, according to the advisory.
The IKE DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 3.2 and later.
The HTTP hole allows an authenticated attacker with the ability to send a series of malicious HTTP packets to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments. A TCP three-way handshake is needed in order to exploit this vulnerability, the advisory states.
This vulnerability is also triggered by traffic destined for the controller, not transient traffic.
The HTTP DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The three privilege escalation vulnerabilities could allow an authenticated attacker with read-only privileges to modify the device configuration. The privilege escalation vulnerabilities affect Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The ACL vulnerabilities involve traffic to and from wireless clients or to all traffic destined for the controller CPU. The vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to bypass policies that should be enforced by CPU-based ACLs. No other ACL types are affected by these vulnerabilities, the Cisco advisory states.
One of the two ACL bypass vulnerabilities affects Cisco controller software versions 4.1 and later. The second ACL bypass vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 6.0.x.
Cisco says it has released free software updates that address these vulnerabilities. There are no workarounds to mitigate them, the company says. Cisco also says it is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerabilities, which were found during internal testing and troubleshooting of customer service requests.
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