CVE-2017-6703 in Prime Collaboration Provisioning
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in the web application in the Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning tool could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to hijack another user's session. More Information: CSCvc90346. Known Affected Releases: 12.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/30/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-6703 resides within the Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning tool version 12.1, representing a critical session management flaw that enables unauthenticated remote attackers to hijack active user sessions. This weakness specifically affects the web application component of the Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning solution, which is designed to manage and provision collaboration services within enterprise networks. The vulnerability stems from inadequate session handling mechanisms that fail to properly validate session tokens or implement sufficient session isolation measures, creating an exploitable condition that allows malicious actors to gain unauthorized access to legitimate user sessions without requiring valid credentials.
The technical flaw manifests through insufficient session management controls that permit session token prediction or reuse, enabling attackers to intercept and utilize valid session identifiers to impersonate authorized users. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-384, which addresses session management flaws where applications fail to properly manage user sessions, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1563.002 for credentials in files, as the session hijacking allows unauthorized access to user privileges and data. The flaw exists in the web application layer of the Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning tool, where session tokens are generated, validated, and maintained without proper cryptographic strength or session binding mechanisms that would prevent unauthorized access to active sessions.
Operationally, this vulnerability poses significant risk to organizations utilizing Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning, as successful exploitation could enable attackers to access sensitive collaboration data, modify provisioning configurations, and potentially disrupt enterprise communication services. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access to include potential lateral movement within the network, as compromised sessions may provide access to additional systems or data within the collaboration infrastructure. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to gain persistent access to the provisioning environment, potentially leading to configuration changes that affect network-wide collaboration services, including phone systems, video conferencing capabilities, and unified communications infrastructure.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant Cisco security patches and updates that address the session management flaws in the Prime Collaboration Provisioning tool. Network segmentation and access controls should be strengthened to limit exposure of the provisioning tool to untrusted networks, while monitoring should be enhanced to detect suspicious session activity or unauthorized access attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of implementing proper session management practices including secure token generation, session timeout mechanisms, and session binding to user context information. Additionally, organizations should conduct regular security assessments of their collaboration infrastructure to identify similar session management vulnerabilities and ensure that all components follow established security frameworks and best practices for session handling and authentication.