CVE-2008-3157
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedNortel SIP Multimedia PC Client 4.x MCS5100 and MCS5200 does not limit the number of concurrent sessions, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via a large number of sessions.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe Nortel SIP Multimedia PC Client versions 4.x on MCS5100 and MCS5200 devices fails to impose limits on concurrent SIP sessions. This allows an attacker to establish or initiate a large number of simultaneous sessions, exhausting server or client resources and causing denial of service through session exhaustion.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 4.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed SIP client versionCheck the version of Nortel SIP Multimedia PC Client installed on the system. Look in the application's About or Help section, or check the installed programs list for version information.Affected if The installed version is 4.0 exactly, as this is the only version listed as affected.
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Confirm device platformVerify that the system is running on either an MCS5100 or MCS5200 device. Check system information, device properties, or hardware documentation.Affected if The device is an MCS5100 or MCS5200 model, which are the only platforms confirmed vulnerable.
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Verify SIP service is enabledCheck if the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) service or multimedia call feature is actively enabled and running on the client or device.Affected if SIP service is enabled and accepting connections, which is required for the session exhaustion to be exploitable.
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Check for concurrent session limitsExamine any available configuration settings, administrative console, or network devices (firewall/IPS) to determine if concurrent session limits or rate limiting is enforced on SIP connections.Affected if No concurrent session limits or caps are configured, meaning the client has no built-in restriction on simultaneous SIP sessions.
A user is affected if they are running Nortel SIP Multimedia PC Client version 4.0 on an MCS5100 or MCS5200 device with SIP enabled and no concurrent session limits configured.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataImplement session rate limiting and concurrent session caps at either the application or network level (e.g., firewall/IPS) to restrict the number of simultaneous sessions per user or IP address. Consider network segmentation to limit exposure of the SIP service.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-3157 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-3157 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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