2016-11-30 - Removal of Service Stream Password

It has been brought to our attention that the xCAT product has hard-coded default passwords for the HMC/FSP to allow for IBM Service to connect to customer machines for L2/L3 support activities. This creates a security vulnerability where third parties could potentially gain root level access using these weak, hard coded passwords.

Example:

create_pwd => "netsDynPwdTool --create dev FipSdev",
password => "FipSdev"

In response, xCAT will remove these hard-coded password and interfaces from the xCAT code.

Action

No action is required for xCAT 2.12.3, and higher.

If running older versions of xCAT, update xCAT to a higher level code base that has the hard-coded default passwords removed.

The following table describes the recommended update path:

xCAT Version Action Release Notes
2.13, or newer No applicable  
2.12.x Update to 2.12.3, or higher 2.12.3 Release Notes
2.11.x Update to 2.12.3, or higher 2.12.3 Release Notes
2.10.x Update to 2.12.3, or higher 2.12.3 Release Notes
2.9.x, or older

Update to:

  • 2.9.4, or higher for AIX
  • 2.12.3, or higher for LINUX
2.9.4 Release Notes