Zyxel security advisory for privilege escalation vulnerability in GS1900 series switches

Zyxel_May
Zyxel_May Posts: 164  Zyxel Employee
First Comment Fourth Anniversary

CVE: CVE-2022-45853

Summary

Zyxel has released patches for GS1900 series switches affected by a privilege escalation vulnerability. Users are advised to install them for optimal protection.

What is the vulnerability?

The privilege escalation vulnerability in the Zyxel GS1900 series switches could allow a local authenticated attacker with administrator privileges to execute some system commands as the “root” user on a vulnerable device via SSH. Although SSH access is disabled by default, which would make a network immune from the attack, users are still recommended to upgrade to the latest firmware for optimal protection.

What versions are vulnerable—and what should you do?

After a thorough investigation, we’ve identified the vulnerable switches that are within their vulnerability support period and released patches to address the vulnerability, as shown in the table below.

Affected model

Affected version

Patch availability

GS1900-8

V2.70(AAHH.3)

V2.70(AAHH.5)

GS1900-8HP

V2.70(AAHI.3)

V2.70(AAHI.5)

GS1900-10HP

V2.70(AAZI.3)

V2.70(AAZI.5)

GS1900-16

V2.70(AAHJ.3)

V2.70(AAHJ.5)

GS1900-24

V2.70(AAHL.3)

V2.70(AAHL.5)

GS1900-24E

V2.70(AAHK.3)

V2.70(AAHK.5)

GS1900-24EP

V2.70(ABTO.3)

V2.70(ABTO.5)

GS1900-24HPv2

V2.70(ABTP.3)

V2.70(ABTP.5)

GS1900-48

V2.70(AAHN.3)

V2.70(AAHN.5)

GS1900-48HPv2

V2.70(ABTQ.3)

V2.70(ABTQ.5)

Got a question?

Please contact your local service rep or visit Zyxel’s Community for further information or assistance.

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Justin Aarden for reporting the issue to us.

Revision history

2023-6-6: Initial release.

Comments

  • mMontana
    mMontana Posts: 1,389  Guru Member
    50 Answers 1000 Comments Friend Collector Fifth Anniversary

    Thanks for providing this security advisory.

    Why took 3 months before releasing the firmware? Release note are date 2nd of march, 2023, security advisory is dated 6th of june 2023.

  • Zyxel_Melen
    Zyxel_Melen Posts: 2,483  Zyxel Employee
    Zyxel Certified Network Engineer Level 1 - Switch Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Switch Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Nebula Zyxel Certified Sales Associate

    Hi @mMontana,

    The vulnerability fix was released earlier because it is ready before the firmware release schedule in March. So, we decided not to release two firmware (one in March and another in June) but only one, to not bother the customers.

    Zyxel Melen