CVE-2001-1259 in Argent Office
Summary
by MITRE
Avaya Argent Office allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending UDP packets to port 53 with no payload.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/25/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2001-1259 affects Avaya Argent Office systems which represent a unified communications platform designed for enterprise environments. This particular flaw manifests as a denial of service condition that can be triggered remotely through network-based attacks targeting specific UDP port 53. The vulnerability resides within the application's handling of incoming UDP traffic and demonstrates a classic example of improper input validation and resource management issues that have plagued network services for decades.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate or handle UDP packets received on port 53, which is traditionally reserved for DNS services. When an attacker sends a UDP packet containing no payload to this specific port, the Avaya Argent Office system processes the packet without adequate error handling or resource allocation checks. This behavior creates a condition where the system may enter an unstable state or consume excessive resources, ultimately leading to service disruption. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes issues related to resource exhaustion and improper handling of input data, specifically focusing on the lack of proper validation for network packets. The flaw represents a fundamental design weakness in the application's network protocol handling mechanisms.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to enterprise communication systems that rely on Avaya Argent Office for their business continuity. The denial of service condition can disrupt critical business operations by making the communication platform unavailable to legitimate users. Attackers can exploit this weakness with minimal resources, requiring only basic network tools to send malformed UDP packets, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network monitoring is insufficient. The vulnerability affects organizations that depend on continuous communication services and could result in substantial financial losses due to service interruptions. According to ATT&CK framework category T1498, this represents a denial of service attack that targets application availability, specifically falling under the technique of network denial of service which can be executed through various methods including protocol manipulation.
The mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on network-level defenses and application hardening measures. Organizations should implement firewall rules to block unsolicited UDP traffic on port 53, particularly from external sources, and configure network access control lists to restrict traffic to only authorized sources. Additionally, system administrators should ensure that the Avaya Argent Office application is updated with the latest security patches provided by Avaya, as this vulnerability was likely addressed in subsequent releases. Network monitoring should be enhanced to detect anomalous UDP packet patterns, and intrusion detection systems should be configured to alert on unusual traffic to port 53. The implementation of rate limiting on UDP packet processing and proper resource allocation controls can help prevent the exploitation of this vulnerability. Security teams should also consider implementing network segmentation to isolate critical communication systems and reduce the attack surface. Organizations should conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify similar weaknesses in their communication infrastructure, as this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper protocol handling and input validation in network services.