Cisco warns of default SSH key in several products

Cisco security engineers have disclosed that there is a single default ‘maintenance’ SSH key hardcoded into several families of Cisco security appliances.

The default authorised SSH keys and SSH host keys are associated with remote access for maintenance, meaning that a successful attack would allow hackers to access the devices at will. Once obtained, the private keys would allow an attacker to decrypt traffic after collecting it during a man-in-the-middle attack, or impersonate one of the appliances and alter traffic.

Cisco warns of default SSH key in several products