A vulnerability in the backup restore functionality of Cisco Nexus Dashboard could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to conduct a path traversal attack on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of the contents of a backup file. An attacker with valid Administrator credentials could exploit this vulnerability by restoring a crafted backup file to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain root privileges on the underlying shell on the affected device.
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.