

Author: ICARAX Tech Blog
Topic: Automated Security Auditing for Cisco Infrastructure
Context: Following recent critical vulnerabilities in Cisco SD-WAN and IOS XE, manual checking is insufficient. This guide provides a framework for developers to build automated security audit tools to query device versions and check against known vulnerability databases (CVEs).
Before implementing automated security auditing, ensure you have the following:
Open your terminal and set up your virtual environments.
# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
# Install necessary libraries
# Netmiko: For SSH connections to IOS XE
# Requests: For API calls to NVD/Cisco APIs
# Pydantic: For data validation
pip install netmiko requests pydantic python-dotenv
# Initialize project
npm init -y
# Install dependencies
# Netmiko equivalent: ssh2
# Axios: For API requests
# Dotenv: For environment variables
npm install ssh2 axios dotenv
npm install --save-dev typescript @types/node
We will implement a "Vulnerability Scanner" that connects to a device, retrieves the software version, and checks it against a mock vulnerability database.
import os
import requests
from netmiko import ConnectHandler
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from typing import Dict, List
# Load environment variables
load_dotenv()
class CiscoSecurityAuditor:
def __init__(self, device_config: Dict[str, str]):
self.device_config = device_config
self.version = ""
def get_device_version(self) -> str:
"""Connects via SSH and parses the IOS XE version."""
try:
print(f"[*] Connecting to {self.device_config['host']}...")
with ConnectHandler(**self.device_config) as net_connect:
# Command to get version info
output = net_connect.send_command("show version")
# Simple parsing logic for 'Version X.X'
for line in output.splitlines():
if "Version" in line:
# Extracting the version string (e.g., 17.3.1)
self.version = line.split("Version")[1].split(",")[0].strip()
return self.version
return "Unknown"
except Exception as e:
return f"Connection Error: {str(e)}"
def check_vulnerabilities(self, version: str) -> List[Dict]:
"""
Simulates checking the version against a CVE database.
In production, replace this with a call to NIST NVD API.
"""
# Mock Vulnerability Database
VULN_DB = {
"17.3.1": [{"cve": "CVE-2023-XXXX", "severity": "Critical", "desc": "SD-WAN Buffer Overflow"}],
"17.6.1": [{"cve": "CVE-2024-YYYY", "severity": "High", "desc": "IOS XE Web UI Vulnerability"}]
}
return VULN_DB.get(version, [])
def run_audit(self):
version = self.get_device_version()
print(f"[+] Detected Version: {version}")
if version == "Unknown":
print("[!] Could not retrieve version.")
return
vulnerabilities = self.check_vulnerabilities(version)
if vulnerabilities:
print(f"[!!!] VULNERABILITIES FOUND in {version}:")
for v in vulnerabilities:
print(f" - {v['cve']} [{v['severity']}]: {v['desc']}")
else:
print("[✓] No known vulnerabilities found for this version in local DB.")
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Configuration (Should be loaded from secure env)
target_device = {
'device_type': 'cisco_ios',
'host': os.getenv('DEVICE_IP', '192.168.1.1'),
'username': os.getenv('NET_USER', 'admin'),
'password': os.getenv('NET_PASS', 'cisco123'),
'ecret': os.getenv('NET_SECRET', 'cisco123'), # For enable mode
}
auditor = CiscoSecurityAuditor(target_device)
auditor.run_audit()
import { Client } from 'sh2';
import axios from 'axios';
import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
dotenv.config();
interface Vulnerability {
cve: string;
severity: string;
description: string;
}
class CiscoAuditor {
private host: string;
private username: string;
private password: string;
constructor(host: string, user: string, pass: string) {
this.host = host;
this.username = user;
this.password = pass;
}
/**
* Connects via SSH and retrieves version
*/
async getVersion(): Promise<string> {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const conn = new Client();
conn.on('ready', () => {
conn.exec('show version', (err, stream) => {
if (err) reject(err);
let data = '';
stream.on('data', (chunk) => { data += chunk; });
stream.on('close', () => {
conn.end();
// Simple regex to find version pattern
const match = data.match(/Version\s+([\d\.]+)/);
resolve(match? match[1] : 'Unknown');
});
});
}).on('error', reject).connect({
host: this.host,
port: 22,
username: this.username,
password: this.password
});
});
}
/**
* Checks version against a simulated vulnerability list
*/
async checkCVEs(version: string): Promise<Vulnerability[]> {
// In production, use: await axios.get(`https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?keyword=${version}`)
const mockDB: Record<string, Vulnerability[]> = {
"17.3.1": [{ cve: "CVE-2023-XXXX", severity: "Critical", description: "SD-WAN Buffer Overflow" }]
};
return mockDB[version] || [];
}
async run() {
try {
console.log(`[*] Auditing ${this.host}...`);
const version = await this.getVersion();
console.log(`[+] Version: ${version}`);
const vulns = await this.checkCVEs(version);
if (vulns.length > 0) {
console.warn(`[!!!] Found ${vulns.length} vulnerabilities!`);
console.table(vulns);
} else {
console.log('[✓] Device is compliant.');
}
} catch (error) {
console.error('[X] Audit failed:', error);
}
}
}
// Execution
const auditor = new CiscoAuditor(
process.env.DEVICE_IP || '192.168.1.1',
process.env.NET_USER || 'admin',
process.env.NET_PASS || 'cisco123'
);
auditor.run();
Never hardcode credentials. Use a .env file located in your root directory.
# Network Device Credentials
DEVICE_IP=10.0.0.5
NET_USER=admin
NET_PASS=YourSecurePassword
NET_SECRET=YourEnableSecret
# API Keys (If using NVD or Cisco APIs)
NVD_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
Instead of running a script manually, developers use a Cron Job (Linux) or GitHub Actions to run the script every 24 hours. If vulnerabilities are found, the script sends an alert via Slack or Email.
Instead of one-by-one scanning, developers maintain a JSON/Database inventory of all network assets and loop through them to generate a "Compliance Report."
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Authentication Failed | Wrong username/password or SSH key | Verify credentials; check if enable mode is required. |
Connection Timeout | Firewall blocking port 22 | Ensure your management IP is whitelisted in the device ACL. |
Regex Match Failed | Version string format changed | Update the regex pattern in get_device_version. |
EHOSTUNREACH | Network routing issue | Ensure you can ping the target from the host machine. |
.env?Source: Security Week AI
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