500-052 health - Deploying Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCXD) Updated: 2023

Cisco disclosed a new high-severity zero-day (CVE-2023-20273) today, actively exploited to deploy malicious implants on IOS XE devices compromised using the CVE-2023-20198 zero-day unveiled earlier this week.

The company said it found a fix for both vulnerabilities and estimates it will be released to customers via the Cisco Software get Center over the weekend, starting October 22.

"Fixes for both CVE-2023-20198 and CVE-2023-20273 are estimated to be available on October 22. The CVE-2021-1435 that had previously been mentioned is no longer assessed to be associated with this activity," Cisco said today.

On Monday, Cisco disclosed that unauthenticated attackers have been exploiting the CVE-2023-20198 authentication bypass zero-day since at least September 18 to hack into IOS XE devices and create "cisco_tac_admin" and "cisco_support."

As revealed today, the CVE-2023-20273 privilege escalation zero-day is then used to gain root access and take complete control over Cisco IOS XE devices to deploy malicious implants that enable them to execute arbitrary commands at the system.

Over 40,000 Cisco devices running the vulnerable IOS XE software have already been compromised by hackers using the two still-unpatched zero-days, according to Censys and LeakIX estimations. Two days earlier, VulnCheck estimates were floating around 10,000 on Tuesday, while the Orange Cyberdefense CERT said one day later that it found malicious implants on 34,500 IOS XE devices.

Networking devices running Cisco IOS XE include enterprise switches, access points, wireless controllers, as well as industrial, aggregation, and branch routers.

While it's hard to get the exact number of Internet-exposed Cisco IOS XE devices, a Shodan search currently shows that more than 146K vulnerable systems are exposed to attacks.

Cisco has cautioned administrators that, even though security updates are unavailable, they can still block incoming attacks by disabling the vulnerable HTTP server feature on all internet-facing systems.

"We strongly urge customers to take these immediate actions as further outlined in our updated security advisory and Talos blog," a Cisco spokesperson told BleepingComputer.

Admins are also strongly advised to look for suspicious or recently created user accounts as potential indicators of malicious activity associated with these ongoing attacks.

One way to detect the malicious implant on compromised Cisco IOS XE devices requires running the following command on the device, where the placeholder "DEVICEIP" represents the IP address under investigation:

curl -k -X POST "https[:]//DEVICEIP/webui/logoutconfirm.html?logon_hash=1"

Last month, Cisco warned customers to patch another zero-day bug (CVE-2023-20109) in its IOS and IOS XE software, also targeted by attackers in the wild

Defense personnel are often unsung heroes—potentially putting their lives on the line to serve their communities. Giving back to those who choose to serve, or are transitioning out of the armed forces, is clearly the right thing to do. We’re proud that Cisco Networking Academy partners with organizations around the world looking after the unique needs of current and former military service people.

Training-up down under

Soldier On is a not-for-profit organization delivering support services that enable current and former Australian Defence Force personnel—and their families—to lead meaningful civilian lives. It does this by providing psychology support services, employment support, education programs, and community-building activities.

Amy Cooper, CEO of Soldier On, is particularly aware of those needs—her father-in-law and partner are respectively former and current Australian Defence Forces personnel. Amy also sits on the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide reference committee, which gives her an even greater insight into the challenges facing current and former veterans and their families.

In Australia, a Royal Commission is a public hearing, independent of government, with broad powers to summon witnesses or seize documents and receive public submissions. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was established in 2021 to inquire into systemic issues and risk factors relevant to veteran deaths by suicide, or other lived experience of suicide risk factors, and to provide a systemic analysis of the contributing factors. To date, the Commission has received more than 4,000 submissions.

Unique challenges

“One of the interesting pieces that have come out of the Royal Commission is the fact that around 80 percent of the veterans go on to have really successful civilian lives,” says Amy. “Unfortunately, 20 percent face really significant challenges.”

She says this is significant because an increasing number of service people are transitioning out of the armed forces. “Those numbers have traditionally tracked around the 5,000 mark,” she says. “This year it’s anticipated it will be closer to 7,000 people making that transition, and that number has risen over the last three years.”

“We’re also seeing trends with younger veterans discharging, so from an increased number from 25-year-olds right up to mid-30s, which changes the nature of the support that might be required for transitioning veterans.”

Soldier On is supporting around 11,000 service people, veterans, and their families this year, with programs designed to aid with health and wellbeing, employment support, and education, as well as helping make connections within the community.

Values-driven

“What attracts people to serve their nation is often very values-driven,” says Amy. “It’s about being able to serve and support the community and often they’re looking for roles that have that same altruistic service or are an intrinsic value to them.”

“Cisco Networking Academy is a strong part of our mission, particularly for our veterans and family members to thrive,” she says. “It is really focused on that positive aspect of being able to offer practical support through a range of education opportunities that the partnership provides… the courses have been a great opportunity to get many of our participants into the IT industry.”

“The very nature of the program, being very skills directed, provides good options for participants as they balance serving, or starting to think about that transition time, which is often a very busy time with relocating,” says Amy. “I think that’s a tremendous investment in veterans and their families.”

Helping veterans around the world

Soldier On is not alone in its mission to help veterans transition into new careers. In the UK, TechVets is another Cisco Networking Academy partner that helps more than 20 people per month to start new careers in IT. TechVets was founded to address a fast-growing skills gap with the rise of tech, and a national issue with unemployment and underemployment within the British Military Forces community.

And in the US, Cisco—which has consistently been recognized as a Top 10 Military Friendly Employer—has a range of veteran programs to assist veterans transitions into meaningful IT careers, including Onward to Opportunity, a program run by Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) to help service members, veterans, and spouses on their journey to meaningful employment after military service.

IVMF is also a Cisco Networking Academy partner, dedicated to serving military personnel and part of CyberVetsUSA, a fully-sponsored “veterans-first” workforce development initiative, do amazing work helping veterans transition into in-demand tech jobs.

Cisco also runs CX Apprenticeship Programs in the US and India to develop networking skills for non-traditional candidates leading to the opportunity to interview for the highly technical, customer-facing role of a Technical Consulting Engineer in Cisco’s Customer Experience organization. Around a third of the current cohort are veterans.

Cisco Networking Academy success stories

In France, Arnaud found he wasn’t academically-inclined and joined the Army, where he realized that his colleagues’ lives depended on reliable communications. After serving his country, Arnaud knew his future was in IT, and after undertaking Cisco Networking Academy training now works for a French ISP as a Network Engineer.

Vanessa was in the Brazilian Army while doing postgraduate studies in Computer Networks. Unfortunately, that knowledge wasn’t required for her job. After leaving the Army she became interested in cybersecurity, eventually taking the CyberOps Associate course with Cisco Networking Academy and landing a job as a cybersecurity analyst.

Michael joined the fire service to contribute to his community, but was called up twice to serve in Iraq. An injury ultimately ended his firefighting career, leading him to pursue a career in cybersecurity incident response. Through Cisco Networking Academy training, Michael has found a new passion in the field, driven by his commitment to service and continuous learning.

Transition to tech with

Cisco Networking Academy

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Sohaib Khan is a freelance writer and aspiring novelist with a bachelor's degree in math from Luther College, Iowa. He is an expert in SEO techniques. Khan also contributes to blogs and helps friends maintain their websites. He hopes to earn a master's degree in creative writing some day.

Tiny particles called PM2.5 irritate the eyes, nose, and respiratory system. Long-term exposure aggravates heart and lung disease.

AQI Source: Contains Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2023 and/or modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2023

Cisco Systems' (NASDAQ:CSCO) stock up by 5.8% over the past three months. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to investigate if the company's decent financials had a hand to play in the latest price move. In this article, we decided to focus on Cisco Systems' ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

See our latest analysis for Cisco Systems

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Cisco Systems is:

28% = US$13b ÷ US$44b (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2023).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.28.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

Cisco Systems' Earnings Growth And 28% ROE

First thing first, we like that Cisco Systems has an impressive ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 9.5% which is quite remarkable. This probably laid the groundwork for Cisco Systems' moderate 10% net income growth seen over the past five years.

Story continues

As a next step, we compared Cisco Systems' net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 39% in the same period.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is CSCO worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether CSCO is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Cisco Systems Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 55% (or a retention ratio of 45%) for Cisco Systems suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.

Moreover, Cisco Systems is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 38% over the next three years. However, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much despite the lower expected payout ratio.

Conclusion

Overall, we feel that Cisco Systems certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Its earnings have grown respectably as we saw earlier, which was likely due to the company reinvesting its earnings at a pretty high rate of return. However, given the high ROE, we do think that the company is reinvesting a small portion of its profits. This could likely be preventing the company from growing to its full extent. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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