Title: Cisco Catalyst 802.1x Frame Forwarding Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
The Catalyst Switch is a high performance, low cost switch distributed by Cisco Systems. It is designed to offer scalability, ease of use, and modular configuration for maximum flexibility.
A problem has been discovered in the 5000 and 2900 series switches which could lead to decreased network performance, as well as a potential Denial of Service. This is due to the handling of certain frame types the switch receives.
The 802.1x standard is a proposed standard for providing port-based network access control. The overall objective of the standard is to provide authenticated access to clients on networks, enhancing overall network security.
A Cisco Catalyst switch with Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) blocked ports could be used to generate a network storm of 802.1x frames. Upon receiving the 802.1x frames, a switch should normally drop these frames. However, the Catalyst series forwards these frames on to the VLAN managed by the Switch, causing a storm of these frames. The storm is stopped only by removing the source of the frames from the network.
This vulnerability affects 5000 series switches and 2900 series switches based on Encoded Address Recognition Logic (EARL) 1, 1+, and 1++, and using the affected software. Switches using EARL 2 are not affected, nor is any system using a fixed version of the software.
Affected Products:
- Cisco Catalyst 2900 4.5.0(11)
- Cisco Catalyst 2900 5.5.0(6)
- Cisco Catalyst 2900 6.1.0(2)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 4.5.0(10)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 4.5.0(11)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 5.5.0(4b)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 5.5.0(6)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 6.1.0(1c)
- Cisco Catalyst 5000 6.1.0(2)
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