CVE-2015-4269 in Unified Communications Manager
Summary
by MITRE
The Tomcat throttling feature in Cisco Unified Communications Manager 10.5(1.99995.9) allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (management outage) by sending many requests, aka Bug ID CSCuu99709.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/24/2024
The vulnerability described in CVE-2015-4269 represents a critical denial of service weakness within Cisco Unified Communications Manager version 10.5(1.99995.9) that specifically targets the Tomcat throttling mechanism. This flaw enables remote authenticated attackers to disrupt system operations by exploiting the management interface's handling of excessive requests, potentially leading to complete service unavailability for administrators and users relying on the communication platform.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate request rate limiting and resource management within the Tomcat web container that powers the Cisco Unified Communications Manager management interface. When authenticated users submit numerous requests in rapid succession, the system fails to properly throttle these connections, causing resource exhaustion and ultimately resulting in a management outage. This behavior aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes unchecked resource consumption as a fundamental weakness in software design that can lead to denial of service conditions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it affects the core management capabilities of the unified communications platform. Administrators lose access to critical system controls and monitoring functions, potentially leaving the organization without visibility into its communication infrastructure during the outage. The vulnerability's remote nature means that attackers do not require physical access or network-level privileges to exploit the weakness, making it particularly dangerous in environments where the management interface is accessible over the network.
This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and resource management in web application frameworks, particularly when dealing with authenticated user sessions that may be exploited for malicious purposes. The attack vector specifically targets the management plane of the system rather than the data plane, which means that while regular communication services might continue to function, administrative capabilities become completely compromised. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which describes denial of service attacks targeting system services and management interfaces.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to the management interface, implementing additional rate limiting controls at the network level, and monitoring for unusual request patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The recommended long-term solution involves applying Cisco's official security patches and updates to the Unified Communications Manager platform, while also considering the implementation of intrusion detection systems that can identify and alert on abnormal request volumes targeting the management interface. Additionally, administrators should review and restrict user permissions to minimize the potential impact of compromised accounts and ensure that only essential personnel have access to the management functions that could be exploited in this manner.