Multiple Cisco products are affected by a vulnerability in local file management for certain system log files of Cisco collaboration products that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high disk utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability occurs because a certain system log file does not have a maximum size restriction. Therefore, the file is allowed to consume the majority of available disk space on the appliance. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted remote connection requests to the appliance. Successful exploitation could allow the attacker to increase the size of a system log file so that it consumes most of the disk space. The lack of available disk space could lead to a DoS condition in which the application functions could operate abnormally, making the appliance unstable. This vulnerability affects the following Cisco Voice Operating System (VOS)-based products: Emergency Responder, Finesse, Hosted Collaboration Mediation Fulfillment, MediaSense, Prime License Manager, SocialMiner, Unified Communications Manager (UCM), Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service (IM&P - earlier releases were known as Cisco Unified Presence), Unified Communication Manager Session Management Edition (SME), Unified Contact Center Express (UCCx), Unified Intelligence Center (UIC), Unity Connection, Virtualized Voice Browser. This vulnerability also affects Prime Collaboration Assurance and Prime Collaboration Provisioning. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvd10872, CSCvf64322, CSCvf64332, CSCvi29538, CSCvi29543, CSCvi29544, CSCvi29546, CSCvi29556, CSCvi29571, CSCvi31738, CSCvi31741, CSCvi31762, CSCvi31807, CSCvi31818, CSCvi31823.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency_responder | Cisco | 10.5 (including) | 10.5(1a) (excluding) |
| Emergency_responder | Cisco | 11.0 (including) | 11.5(4) (excluding) |
| Emergency_responder | Cisco | 12.0 (including) | 12.0su1 (excluding) |
| Emergency_responder | Cisco | 11.0(1.10000.10) (including) | 11.0(1.10000.10) (including) |
Limited resources include memory, file system storage, database connection pool entries, and CPU. If an attacker can trigger the allocation of these limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the attacker could cause a denial of service that consumes all available resources. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system. There are at least three distinct scenarios which can commonly lead to resource exhaustion:
Resource exhaustion problems are often result due to an incorrect implementation of the following situations:
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.