Cisco router exploit mean anything to us?

I was searching around here to see if anyone had mentioned this headline story.. I heard it on NPR and found an article on CNN. I don't know the scope of the problem.. whether it's just a filler story after the "defacer competition" that flopped or if it has any substance, but it looks like cisco is scrambling to send out patches. NPR made it sound as if all the backbones could fall at any moment. The announcement was made just a couple days ago.

According to Cisco's alert, the vulnerability could be exploited by sending a "rare sequence" of data packets to a device running IOS, the equivalent of Windows for routers and switches. It causes the device to stop processing traffic once its incoming queue is full.

An attack would not trigger any alarms and could be repeated until the device is inaccessible. Brady said Cisco discovered the vulnerability through internal testing.

"This type of attack can be launched at a specific target, or launched indiscriminately to cause widespread outages," according to an alert issued by Internet Security Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that operates an early warning network for the technology industry.
Atleast it was first discovered internally, so they say. How's this affecting datacenters?

Full story on CNN
Exploit now in the hands of hackers

 

 

 

 

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