Juniper Networks has issued an update after finding hardcoded credentials had been left in some of its datacenter switches.

The exposed login, designated CVE-2019-0034, was found in the Junos Network Agent, a software tool used to manage sensors and other devices that monitor network performance. Specifically, hardcoded credentials were found in Google gRPC, a component used with the Junos Telemetry Interface.

"Configuration files used by gRPC were found to contain hardcoded credentials that could be used by the Junos Network Agent to perform unauthorized read of certain non-critical information (e.g. sensor data)," Juniper said in announcing the alert.

"Additionally, APIs exposed via the Juniper Extension Toolkit (JET) may be able to perform non-critical 'set' operations on the device."

While the vulnerable components can be part of Junos, only switches running the Telemetry Interface with Junos Network Agent actually have the hardcoded login details exposed, so any box that is not running the Network Agent would be safe from this bug.

Juniper says admins can check if they are running a vulnerable version of Network Agent by entering the following command:

user@junos> show version | grep na\ telemetry

And checking for the output

user@junos>JUNOS na telemetry [17.3R3-S3.3]

Should the switch be found to be open to attack, Juniper is recommending admins update their firmware to the latest version of Junos (this is probably a good idea anyway).

Admins way just want to consider this another patch to roll out in what has been a steady week for firmware and application fixes. On Tuesday, Microsoft, Adobe, and SAP all delivered their scheduled monthly updates, followed shortly thereafter by four fixes from Intel. ®