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Pix Asa Finesse Operation SystemOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2008-1246

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2008-03-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Cisco PIX/ASA Finesse Operation System 7.1 and 7.2 allows local users to gain privileges by entering characters at the enable prompt, erasing these characters via the Backspace key, and then holding down the Backspace key for one second after erasing the final character. NOTE: third parties, including one who works for the vendor, have been unable to reproduce the flaw unless the enable password is blank

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Cisco PIX/ASA Finesse OS 7.1 and 7.2 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability where an attacker with console access can bypass authentication at the enable prompt by entering characters, erasing them with Backspace, and then holding Backspace for one second after the final character is deleted. The description notes this only works when the enable password is blank.

MitigationSet a non-blank enable password on affected devices, or upgrade to a patched version of Cisco ASA software beyond 7.2. This is a configuration-based vulnerability exploitable only when no enable password is configured.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Pix Asa Finesse Operation SystemOperating system
Affected:= 7.1= 7.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the OS version
    Use the 'show version' command on the device console to determine if the software version is 7.1 or 7.2
    Affected if The displayed version matches 7.1 or 7.2 exactly
  2. Verify enable password configuration
    Use the 'show running-config | include enable' or 'show startup-config | include enable' command to inspect the enable password setting
    Affected if The output shows no password configured (no password set, password is null, or enable password line is absent)

The device is affected only if it runs version 7.1 or 7.2 AND has a blank (unset) enable password configured.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Set a non-blank enable password on affected devices, or upgrade to a patched version of Cisco ASA software beyond 7.2. This is a configuration-based vulnerability exploitable only when no enable password is configured.

Fix this in Pix Asa Finesse Operation System Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-1246 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data