CVE-2017-6781: A vulnerability in the management of shell user accounts for Cisco Policy Suite (CPS) Software for CPS appliances could allow an authenticated, local attacker t

A vulnerability in the management of shell user accounts for Cisco Policy Suite (CPS) Software for CPS appliances could allow an authenticated, local attacker t

A vulnerability in the management of shell user accounts for Cisco Policy Suite (CPS) Software for CPS appliances could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain elevated privileges on an affected system. The affected privilege level is not at the root level. The vulnerability is due to incorrect role-based access control (RBAC) for shell user accounts. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to an affected appliance and providing crafted user input via the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to acquire a higher privilege level than should have been granted. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must log in to the appliance with valid credentials. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve37724. Known Affected Releases: 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 10.0.0, 11.0.0, 12.0.0.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by psirt@cisco.com

What it means for a small business

Policy Suite is network equipment or remote-access software: the box between your office and the internet. These are a favorite target because breaking one opens the whole office.

If an IT provider set it up, ask them to confirm the firmware version and the date it was updated. If nobody looks after it, that's the bigger problem.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.26%, higher than 17% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 31, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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