CVE-2011-3573 in Communications Unified
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle Communications Unified 7.0 allows remote authenticated users to affect availability via unknown vectors related to Calendar Server.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-3573 resides within Oracle Communications Unified 7.0, specifically affecting the Calendar Server component. This designation indicates a critical security weakness that could potentially compromise system availability through unspecified attack vectors. The vulnerability impacts remote authenticated users, meaning that an attacker must first establish legitimate credentials before exploiting the flaw, which suggests the issue may be related to insufficient access controls or improper input validation within the calendar service functionality.
The technical nature of this vulnerability falls under the category of availability impact, which aligns with CWE-400, representing unchecked resource consumption or resource exhaustion attacks. The Calendar Server component likely processes user requests for calendar management functions including event creation, modification, and retrieval. Attackers could potentially exploit this weakness through malformed calendar data or excessive request patterns that cause the server to consume excessive resources or crash entirely. The unspecified nature of the vectors suggests that the vulnerability may manifest through multiple attack pathways related to calendar data handling, session management, or resource allocation mechanisms within the unified communications platform.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to enterprise communication systems that rely on Oracle Communications Unified 7.0 for calendar services. Organizations using this platform may experience service disruption, denial of calendar access, or complete system unavailability during attack windows. The impact extends beyond simple calendar functionality as calendar servers often integrate with other communication services, potentially causing cascading failures across unified communications infrastructure. This vulnerability could be exploited as part of broader attack campaigns targeting enterprise communication systems, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1499.1 for availability impact through resource consumption.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper input validation and resource limiting mechanisms within the Calendar Server component. Organizations should apply Oracle's security patches and updates immediately upon availability, as these typically address the root cause of such vulnerabilities. Network segmentation and access controls should be reinforced to limit the attack surface, particularly for calendar services that may be exposed to external networks. Monitoring systems should be enhanced to detect unusual calendar request patterns or resource consumption spikes that could indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing rate limiting and request validation for calendar operations can help prevent resource exhaustion attacks while maintaining legitimate user functionality. The vulnerability highlights the importance of comprehensive security testing for unified communications platforms and proper security hardening procedures that align with industry standards such as NIST SP 800-53 for secure system design and implementation practices.