CVE-2014-2122 in Hosted Collaboration Solution
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in the GUI in the Impact server in Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via unspecified vectors, aka Bug ID CSCub58999.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/08/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-2122 represents a critical memory leak condition within the graphical user interface component of Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution servers. This issue specifically affects the Impact server implementation and manifests as an insufficient resource consumption problem that can be exploited remotely. The vulnerability resides in the server-side processing logic where the system fails to properly manage memory allocation and deallocation cycles during GUI operations, leading to progressive memory consumption over time.
The technical flaw stems from improper memory management within the Impact server's GUI subsystem, which operates as part of Cisco's hosted collaboration solution architecture. When remote attackers interact with the system through unspecified vectors, the memory leak occurs during the processing of GUI-related requests and user interactions. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-401 as a failure to release memory resources, which directly correlates to the memory consumption pattern described in the CVE. The system's inability to properly reclaim allocated memory during normal operation cycles creates a progressive degradation that eventually leads to resource exhaustion.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to execute a denial of service attack against Cisco HCS infrastructure by systematically consuming available memory resources. The attack does not require authentication or specific privileges, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited from external networks. The memory leak behavior results in progressive system performance degradation followed by complete service unavailability, disrupting collaboration services for legitimate users. This vulnerability directly impacts the availability aspect of the CIA triad and can be classified under ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks.
The mitigation strategies for this vulnerability involve implementing proper memory management practices within the Impact server software, including regular memory cleanup routines and resource monitoring mechanisms. Cisco released patches and updates to address the memory leak issue, which should be deployed immediately across affected systems. Network segmentation and access controls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures to limit exposure, while monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper resource management in server applications and highlights the need for comprehensive testing of memory handling code paths in collaborative infrastructure solutions.