CVE-2023-20259
Published: 04 October 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20259 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).
Operationally, ranked at the 37.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24438
Vulnerability details
A vulnerability in an API endpoint of multiple Cisco Unified Communications Products could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause high CPU utilization, which could impact access to the web-based management interface and cause delays with call processing. This API…
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is not used for device management and is unlikely to be used in normal operations of the device. This vulnerability is due to improper API authentication and incomplete validation of the API request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to a specific API on the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition due to high CPU utilization, which could negatively impact user traffic and management access. When the attack stops, the device will recover without manual intervention.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.
Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.
Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.
Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.
Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.
Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.
Timely maintenance support and spare parts enable rapid recovery from failures induced by uncontrolled resource consumption, shortening the impact window of denial-of-service attacks.