federal

Patch and Pray Failed: FIRESTARTER Proves Cisco Devices Can Stay Owned

John Z Black Apr 23, 2026

Security Operations & Resilience #cisco #firestarter #persistence #malware #cisa #federal #incident-response #patch-management

A federal agency followed the rules, patched the CVE, and still got owned. FIRESTARTER is a specialized Cisco backdoor designed to survive the remediation cycle. It’s time to stop assuming a patch equals a clean network.