Cisco has released security advisories for five critical vulnerabilities in its NX-OS data center operating system. The flaws affect Nexus 3000 and 9000 Series switches, core components of many data center networks.
Attackers could exploit the vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. Successful exploitation could result in a complete takeover of an affected device.
If remote code execution is unsuccessful, attackers could still cause a denial of service by crashing processes and forcing the device to reload. The vulnerabilities affect the NX-API, Next Generation OAM (NGOAM) and MPLS OAM features.
Cisco urges customers to upgrade to a patched NX-OS version. No workarounds are available.