CVE-2013-1135 in Prime Central For Hosted Collaboration Solution Assurance
Summary
by MITRE
Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) Assurance 8.6 and 9.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption and monitoring outage) via malformed TLS messages to TCP port (1) 9043 or (2) 9443, aka Bug ID CSCuc07155.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/25/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-1135 affects Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) Assurance versions 8.6 and 9.0, representing a critical denial of service weakness that can be exploited remotely through malformed TLS communications. This vulnerability specifically targets the secure communication channels used by the HCS Assurance platform, which is designed to monitor and manage hosted collaboration services within enterprise environments. The affected system components operate on two primary TCP ports, 9043 and 9443, which are configured to handle encrypted TLS traffic for administrative and monitoring purposes. The flaw stems from insufficient input validation mechanisms within the TLS processing stack, allowing malicious actors to craft specially formatted TLS handshake messages that trigger abnormal processing behaviors within the affected software.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when remote attackers send malformed TLS messages to the designated ports, causing the system to consume excessive CPU resources during the processing of these invalid communications. This improper handling of malformed TLS data leads to a condition where the system's processing capabilities become saturated, resulting in complete or partial denial of service for legitimate monitoring operations. The vulnerability manifests as a gradual increase in CPU utilization that can escalate to 100% usage, effectively preventing the system from performing its intended monitoring functions and potentially causing cascading failures within the broader hosted collaboration environment. The issue is classified under CWE-20, which addresses "Improper Input Validation" in software systems, specifically highlighting the failure to properly validate and sanitize input data before processing.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to enterprise network monitoring capabilities, particularly within organizations that rely on Cisco Prime Central for comprehensive oversight of their hosted collaboration services. The denial of service condition affects not only the availability of the monitoring interface but also compromises the integrity of the overall system health assessment, potentially masking other underlying issues or security incidents. Organizations may experience extended periods of reduced monitoring effectiveness, which could delay incident response times and create blind spots in their security posture. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers do not require physical access or network proximity to cause disruption, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network segmentation is not properly implemented. This weakness aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers "Endpoint Denial of Service" through network-based attacks that consume system resources.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-1135 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Cisco Prime Central HCS Assurance installations to version 9.0(1) or later, which contain the necessary fixes for proper TLS message validation. Network administrators should implement firewall rules to restrict access to the vulnerable ports 9043 and 9443 to trusted administrative networks only, while also deploying intrusion detection systems that can identify and alert on malformed TLS traffic patterns. The implementation of rate limiting mechanisms at the network level can help prevent exploitation by limiting the number of TLS handshake attempts from individual sources. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough network segmentation to ensure that the vulnerable services are not directly accessible from untrusted networks, and maintain detailed logging of all TLS communications for forensic analysis purposes. System administrators should also consider implementing monitoring alerts that trigger when CPU utilization exceeds predetermined thresholds, enabling rapid response to potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the importance of proper input validation in network security applications and demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation flaws can result in significant operational disruptions within enterprise monitoring infrastructure.