Cisco patches flaws

Internet hardware giant Cisco has released its bi-annual set of security patches for its router firmware and operating system, IOS.

This time there are 12 security flaws in the products and Cisco has released details on 11 different security advisories here. They affect routers and switches that use the Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

There are a variety of services in the devices' underlying Cisco IOS operating system, which also get a makeover.

Generally, if a hacker exploited any of the vulnerabilities there would either be a breach in confidentiality or a denial of service.

Among the patches is a fix for an IOS bug that lets an attacker bypass access control policies on gear that uses the Object Groups for ACL.

Even though Cisco does not patch bugs that often, it is rare to see this many being released at once. The company believes releasing this many in one go helps IT staff plan their patching.

Cisco's updates come on the fourth Wednesday of March and September, and the next IOS patches will appear on 24 March 2010.