NETWORK SECURITY
Auditing Cisco routers for misconfiguration and legacy risk
A professional services firm regained control of a black-box network, removed ghost devices and improved video stability without replacing all infrastructure immediately.
THE CHALLENGE
What needed to change
The network had been set up years earlier by a departed contractor. Passwords were lost, shadow devices had been added without oversight, and video conferencing traffic competed with low-priority traffic during stakeholder meetings.
THE APPROACH
How Cybergaar responded
Cybergaar performed a controlled network assessment, recovered router access through ROMMON, scanned for unknown devices, hardened legacy services and configured QoS/load balancing around business-critical traffic.
THE OUTCOME
The result
The client regained administrative control, removed unmanaged devices, reduced video jitter and received a practical hardening plan for end-of-life equipment until budget was available for replacement.
THE CHALLENGE
What created the risk
Gap in Security
The infrastructure had never been reviewed for security because the original vendor focused only on connectivity.
Unknown Devices
The business had no current inventory of connected devices or what each one was doing.
Congested Pipelines
Video conferencing traffic had no priority and was frequently degraded by background usage.
THE SOLUTION
What changed in the architecture
Full Network Scan
Nmap and manual validation were used to identify exposed services, active hosts and legacy risks.
Shadow Device Identification
Unmanaged Raspberry Pis and small servers were located and moved toward safer segmentation.
Intelligent Traffic Shaping
QoS and load balancing were configured to prioritise voice/video packets over background data.
TECHNICAL HURDLES & MITIGATIONS
Issues handled during the engagement
Issue
Gaining Entry: lost admin passwords meant the router could not be safely managed.
Architecture fix
Bypassed startup-config through ROMMON, reset secrets and secured administrative access without wiping business-critical settings.
Issue
Legacy Hardware Risk: the router firmware was end-of-life and could not receive modern patches.
Architecture fix
Applied a hardening template, disabled non-essential services and reduced exposed attack surface until replacement was approved.
STORY STATUS