Ucs DirectorApplication · Cisco

CVE-2020-3240

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-04-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.7.3.0 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

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
Multiple vulnerabilities in the REST API of Cisco UCS Director and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data may allow a remote attacker to bypass authentication or conduct directory traversal attacks on an affected device. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

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 · moderate confidence

This vulnerability in Cisco UCS Director and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data REST API allows remote attackers to either bypass authentication mechanisms or perform directory traversal attacks, potentially gaining unauthorized access to the system or accessing sensitive files outside the intended web root.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch from Cisco for this vulnerability. If patching is immediately unfeasible, restrict network access to the REST API interface to trusted IP addresses only.

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
Ucs DirectorApplication
Affected:= 6.0.0.0= 6.0.0.1= 6.0.1.0= 6.0.1.1= 6.0.1.2= 6.0.1.3= 6.5.0.0= 6.5.0.1= 6.5.0.2= 6.5.0.3= 6.5.0.4= 6.6.0.0
Ucs Director Express For Big DataApplication
Affected:<= 3.7.3.0

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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 Cisco UCS Director version
    Log into the Cisco UCS Director web interface, navigate to Administration > System > About, or use the CLI command 'show version' to retrieve the installed software version.
    Affected if The installed version matches 6.0.0.0, 6.0.0.1, 6.0.1.0, 6.0.1.1, 6.0.1.2, 6.0.1.3, 6.5.0.0, 6.5.0.1, 6.5.0.2, 6.5.0.3, 6.5.0.4, or 6.6.0.0
  2. Identify Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data version
    Log into the Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data interface and check the version in Administration > System > About, or run 'show version' via CLI.
    Affected if The installed version is 3.7.3.0 or lower
  3. Verify REST API is accessible
    Attempt to reach the REST API endpoint via browser or curl command at the default path '/ucsd/rs' or the API login endpoint. Confirm the service responds.
    Affected if The REST API endpoint responds and is reachable from the network segment being assessed
  4. Check if authentication can be bypassed
    Send a crafted HTTP request to the REST API login endpoint without valid credentials, observing whether the response indicates successful authentication or returns session tokens.
    Affected if The API accepts unauthenticated requests or returns valid session data without proper credentials
  5. Check for directory traversal vulnerability
    Send an HTTP GET request to the REST API with path traversal sequences such as '../' appended to the URI, for example '/ucsd/rs/../..//etc/passwd' or similar endpoints, and observe whether the response contains file contents outside the web root.
    Affected if The API returns file contents from directories outside the intended web root or displays sensitive system files

The environment is affected if either Cisco UCS Director version 6.0.0.0 through 6.6.0.0 or Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data version 3.7.3.0 or lower is installed, and the REST API is accessible and responds to unauthenticated or path traversal requests.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.7.3.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patch from Cisco for this vulnerability. If patching is immediately unfeasible, restrict network access to the REST API interface to trusted IP addresses only.

Fix this in Ucs Director Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2020-3240 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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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