CVE-2013-5564 in Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution
Summary
by MITRE
The Java process in the Impact server in Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (process crash) via a flood of TCP packets, aka Bug ID CSCug57345.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/02/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-5564 affects the Java process within Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution HCS, representing a significant denial of service weakness that can be exploited remotely by attackers. This flaw resides in the server's handling of TCP packet traffic and specifically targets the Impact server component that manages collaboration services. The vulnerability manifests when the system receives an excessive volume of TCP packets, causing the Java process to crash and resulting in complete service disruption for legitimate users. This issue represents a classic resource exhaustion attack vector where malicious actors can flood the system with TCP connections or packets to overwhelm the server's processing capabilities.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and insufficient traffic management within the Java process that operates the Impact server. When the system receives a flood of TCP packets, the Java runtime environment fails to properly handle the excessive load, leading to process termination and system unavailability. This behavior aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes uncontrolled resource consumption as a fundamental weakness in software design. The vulnerability demonstrates poor error handling mechanisms and lack of rate limiting or traffic shaping capabilities within the server's network stack implementation. Attackers can exploit this weakness without requiring authentication or specialized privileges, making it particularly dangerous as it can be triggered by anyone with network access to the affected system.
The operational impact of CVE-2013-5564 extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass broader business continuity concerns for organizations relying on Cisco Prime Central HCS for their collaboration infrastructure. When the Java process crashes, all hosted collaboration services become unavailable, affecting communication channels, meeting systems, and potentially critical business operations that depend on these platforms. The vulnerability can be exploited through various attack vectors including TCP SYN flood attacks or other forms of TCP packet flooding that overwhelm the server's network processing capabilities. Organizations may experience extended downtime while system administrators work to restore services and implement temporary mitigations. The attack can be executed remotely over the network, meaning that adversaries do not need physical access to the infrastructure, and the impact can be amplified by the distributed nature of modern collaboration solutions that rely on centralized server architectures.
Organizations should implement multiple layers of defense to protect against exploitation of this vulnerability, including network-level rate limiting, firewall rules to restrict TCP packet flow, and intrusion detection systems that can identify abnormal traffic patterns. Cisco recommends applying the latest security patches and updates to address this vulnerability, as well as implementing network segmentation to limit exposure. The mitigation strategy should align with ATT&CK framework techniques related to network denial of service and resource exhaustion attacks. Security teams should monitor network traffic for unusual patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, particularly around the affected server ports and protocols. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in related systems, as this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and resource management in server applications. The incident also highlights the need for robust failover mechanisms and redundancy planning to minimize the impact of such attacks on business operations.