Cisco IOS

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Cisco IOS (originally Internetwork Operating System) is the software used on the vast majority of Cisco Systems routers and all current Cisco network switches. (Earlier switches ran CatOS). IOS is a package of routing, switching, internetworking and telecommunications functions tightly integrated with a multitasking operating system. The first IOS was written by William Yeager.

Cisco IOS has a characteristic command line interface (CLI), whose style has been widely copied by other networking products. The IOS CLI provides a fixed set of multiple-word commands — the set available is determined by the “mode” and the privilege level of the current user. “Global configuration mode” provides commands to change the system’s configuration, and “interface configuration mode” provides commands to change the configuration of a specific interface. All commands are assigned a privilege level, from 0 to 15, and can only be accessed by users with the necessary privilege. Through the CLI, the commands available to each privilege level can be defined.

Cisco IOS has proven vulnerable to buffer overflows and other problems that have afflicted other operating systems and applications.

A legacy CLI issue, retained for compatibility reasons, is that passwords encrypted on the CLI as ‘Type 7′ hash values, such as “Router(config)#username jdoe password 7 0832585B1910010713181F”, are easily decrypted using software called “getpass” available since 1995; the above example decrypts to “stupidpass”. Although this is old news, use of these weak hashes continues due to ignorance of the problem (see Insecure.org Cisco password decryption).However, the program will not decrypt passwords set with the enable secret command. The unexpected concern that this program has caused among Cisco customers has led Cisco to suspect that many customers are relying on Cisco password encryption for more security than it was designed to provide.

Note: Cisco recommends that all Cisco IOS devices implement the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) security model. AAA can use local, RADIUS, and TACACS+ databases.

Information comes from: http@//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_IOS

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