CVE-2013-3453 in Unified Communications Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service before 8.6(5)SU1 and 9.x before 9.1(2), and Cisco Unified Presence, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory and CPU consumption) by making many TCP connections to port (1) 5060 or (2) 5061, aka Bug ID CSCud84959.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/04/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-3453 represents a critical memory leak flaw affecting Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service across multiple versions including those before 8.6(5)SU1 and 9.x before 9.1(2), as well as Cisco Unified Presence systems. This issue manifests through a specific pattern of exploitation that targets the SIP signaling ports commonly used in VoIP communications. The flaw enables remote attackers to consume excessive system resources by establishing numerous TCP connections to either port 5060 or 5061, which are standard ports for SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) communications in unified communications environments.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability stems from inadequate resource management within the IM and Presence service components of Cisco's unified communications platform. When multiple TCP connections are established to the targeted SIP ports, the system fails to properly release memory allocated for connection handling, leading to progressive memory consumption that eventually exhausts available system resources. This memory leak occurs at the application layer where the service processes incoming SIP messages and manages connection states, creating a condition where each successful connection consumes additional memory without proper cleanup. The vulnerability specifically affects the handling of TCP connections in the presence service, which is responsible for managing user presence information and real-time communication status updates within the unified communications framework.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a severe denial of service condition that can effectively瘫痪 entire communication systems within affected organizations. The memory and CPU consumption resulting from the memory leak can cause the affected services to become unresponsive, leading to complete disruption of instant messaging and presence functionality for all users within the impacted system. Network administrators may observe gradual performance degradation followed by complete service outages as system resources become exhausted, making it particularly dangerous for mission-critical communication environments where continuous availability is essential. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this vulnerability from outside the network perimeter without requiring authentication, making it especially concerning for organizations with exposed communication services.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which specifically addresses improper resource cleanup or release, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Organizations affected by this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching to version 8.6(5)SU1 or later for the 8.x series, and 9.1(2) or later for the 9.x series, as these releases contain the necessary fixes to properly manage connection resources and prevent the memory leak from occurring. Network segmentation and access control measures should be implemented to limit exposure of SIP ports to trusted networks only, while monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual connection patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing rate limiting on incoming connections to SIP ports can help mitigate the impact of potential attacks while patches are deployed. The vulnerability underscores the importance of proper resource management in communication services and highlights the need for regular security updates in unified communications platforms to prevent exploitation of such fundamental flaws that can compromise entire network services.