Cisco on Wednesday disclosed a maximum-security vulnerability that allows remote threat actors with no authentication to change the password of any user, including those of administrators with accounts, on Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem devices.

The Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem resides inside the customer premises and provides a dashboard for managing licenses for all Cisco gear in use. It’s used by customers who can’t or don’t want to manage licenses in the cloud, as is more common.

In a bulletin, Cisco warns that the product contains a vulnerability that allows hackers to change any account's password. The severity of the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-20419, is rated 10, the maximum score.

“This vulnerability is due to improper implementation of the password-change process,” the Cisco bulletin stated. “An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to access the web UI or API with the privileges of the compromised user.”

There are no workarounds available to mitigate the threat.

It’s unclear precisely what an attacker can do after gaining administrative control over the device. One possibility is that the web user interface and application programming interface the attacker gains administrative control over make it possible to pivot to other Cisco devices connected to the same network and, from there, steal data, encrypt files, or perform similar actions. Cisco representatives didn’t immediately respond to an email. This post will be updated if a response comes later.

A security update linked to the bulletin fixes the vulnerability. Cisco said it isn’t aware of any evidence that the vulnerability is being actively exploited.