Cisco warranty CDs send users to malicious web site

Cisco has shipped warranty CDs with links to a third-party website known to be a malware repository.

In an advisory, the switching and routing company said the infected CD-ROMs were shipped between the period of December 2010 until August 2011.

"When the CD is opened with a web browser, it automatically and without warning accesses this third-party website. Additionally, on computers where the operating system is configured to automatically open inserted media, the computer's default web browser will access the third-party site when the CD is inserted, without requiring any further action by the user," Cisco warned.

Cisco downplayed the direct risk to end users:

To the best of our knowledge, starting from December 2010 until the time of this document's publication on August 3, 2011, customers were never in a position to have their computer compromised by using the CDs provided by Cisco. Additionally, the third-party site in question is currently inactive as a malware repository, so customers are not in immediate danger of having their computers compromised. However, if this third-party web site would become active as a malware repository again, there is a potential that users could infect their operating system by opening the CD with their web browser.

The advisory contains a list of CDs affected by this incident.