CVE-2013-3390 in Prime Central For Hosted Collaboration Solution Assurance
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) Assurance 8.6 and 9.x before 9.2(1) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a flood of TCP packets, aka Bug ID CSCub59158.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/09/2017
The vulnerability described in CVE-2013-3390 represents a critical memory leak flaw within Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) Assurance version 8.6 and 9.x prior to 9.2(1). This issue manifests as a remote denial of service condition that can be exploited through a flood of TCP packets targeting the affected system. The vulnerability specifically affects the memory management mechanisms within the HCS Assurance component, which is designed to monitor and manage hosted collaboration solutions in enterprise environments. The flaw enables attackers to consume system resources progressively until the device becomes unresponsive or crashes entirely, thereby disrupting critical network monitoring services.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the TCP packet processing routines of the HCS Assurance software. When the system receives a high volume of malformed or excessive TCP packets, it fails to properly release allocated memory resources after processing each packet. This results in a gradual accumulation of memory consumption that eventually leads to system instability. The vulnerability is classified as a memory leak under CWE-401, which specifically addresses improper management of allocated memory resources. The flaw operates at the network protocol level, making it particularly dangerous as it can be triggered remotely without requiring authentication or elevated privileges, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1499.200 for resource exhaustion attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the integrity of network monitoring operations within enterprise environments. Organizations relying on Cisco Prime Central for HCS Assurance for critical infrastructure monitoring face significant risks when this vulnerability exists in their systems. The memory leak can cause progressive degradation of system performance, leading to increased latency in monitoring functions and potential loss of visibility into network operations. In large enterprise deployments where the HCS Assurance component manages multiple collaboration services, this vulnerability could result in cascading failures affecting the entire monitored infrastructure. The remote exploitability of the flaw means that attackers can initiate the memory consumption attack from anywhere on the network, making it particularly challenging to defend against and isolate.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patch application to upgrade the affected systems to version 9.2(1) or later, which contains the necessary memory management fixes. Organizations should also implement network-level protections such as rate limiting and TCP packet filtering to reduce the impact of potential attacks. Network administrators should monitor system memory usage closely and implement automated alerting mechanisms to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of regular security patch management and continuous monitoring of network infrastructure components. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls can limit the potential attack surface for remote exploitation, while maintaining detailed audit logs of system resource usage can help detect anomalous behavior indicative of exploitation attempts.