From firewalls-gc  Wed Jul 09 10:13:57 1997
From: Paul Ferguson <pferguso () cisco ! com>
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 1997 10:13:57 +0000
To: firewalls-gc
Subject: Re: Cisco exploits/vulnerabilities
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=firewalls-gc&m=87619474410357

At 08:56 AM 07/09/97 -0500, Bertrum Carroll wrote:

>It looks as if most of these attacks require access to the router
>console.  If this is true, that's pretty good security.
>
>Or did I miss something?
>

You missed something.  :-)

Configuring protection, or conversely, opening holes, must be
done from the configuration perspective. Configuring can be
done from the console or from a TELNET VTY connection.

Routers are similar in nature to other computer systems, with
the exception being that they are highly specialized systems
tailored to the task of packet forwarding and maintaining,
calculating, and propagating routing information.

If they are configured incorrectly, thay can be extremely
vulnerable. If they configured correctly, they can be
almost (dare I say it) bulletproof.

Having said that, of course, there are denial of service
attacks which can test the mettle of virtually any system,
and some systems are better than others in how they respond
to hostile attacks.

- paul