Cisco, Juniper vulnerable to hacking

By Reuters
3 Dec 2009

The US government has identified flaws in equipment from four companies, including Cisco Systems, that hackers can exploit to break into corporate computer networks.

The Department of Homeland Security's US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, US-CERT, said on its Web site that the warning applies to certain networking products from Cisco, Juniper Networks, SonicWall and SafeNet.

The flaw applies to equipment with technology known as SSL VPN that companies use to set up secure communications systems for safely accessing internal computer systems over the Internet.

It affects VPN systems run directly through a Web browser, rather than through software installed on a user's PC, which is more widely used.

Hackers who exploit the vulnerability could gain broad access to corporate networks, then steal confidential data, install malicious software or turn PCs into spam servers.