CVE-2025-6979
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms in captive portal systems, potentially gaining unauthorized network access. Organizations using affected Arista networking products with captive portal functionality are at risk.
💻 Affected Systems
- Arista EOS-based networking devices with captive portal functionality
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers gain full network access without credentials, potentially leading to data exfiltration, lateral movement, and complete network compromise.
Likely Case
Unauthorized users bypass captive portal authentication to access restricted network resources without paying or authenticating.
If Mitigated
With proper network segmentation and monitoring, impact is limited to isolated network segments with alerting on unauthorized access attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Authentication bypass vulnerabilities typically have low exploitation complexity once the method is understood.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Check vendor advisory for specific fixed versions
Vendor Advisory: https://www.arista.com/en/support/advisories-notices/security-advisory/22535-security-advisory-0123
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Review vendor advisory for affected versions. 2. Download and apply recommended firmware update. 3. Reboot affected devices. 4. Verify captive portal functionality post-update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Captive Portal
allTemporarily disable captive portal functionality until patching can be completed
configure terminal
no aaa authentication captive-portal
Implement Network Segmentation
allIsolate captive portal network segment from critical infrastructure
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to isolate captive portal traffic
- Enable detailed logging and monitoring for authentication bypass attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check device configuration for captive portal settings and compare version against vendor advisoryCheck Version:
show version | include Software image versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify firmware version matches patched version from vendor advisory and test captive portal authentication📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Failed authentication attempts followed by successful access
- Multiple authentication bypass attempts from same source
Network Indicators:
- Unauthorized MAC addresses accessing network resources
- Traffic patterns bypassing normal authentication flows
SIEM Query:
source="network_device" (event_type="auth_failure" AND event_type="auth_success" within 5s)