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Unified Communications ManagerApplication · Cisco

CVE-2013-1188

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-05-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) does not properly limit the rate of authentication attempts, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application slowdown) via a series of requests, aka Bug ID CSCud39515.

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 · high confidence

Cisco Unified Communications Manager fails to enforce rate limits on authentication attempts, allowing remote attackers to send repeated authentication requests that consume resources and cause application slowdown. This is a classic resource exhaustion vulnerability in the authentication subsystem.

MitigationImplement rate limiting on authentication endpoints, possibly through Cisco-provided patches or configuration of existing rate limiting features if available. Consider network-level controls like IPS/IDS to detect and block rapid repeated attempts.

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
Unified Communications ManagerApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Cisco Unified Communications Manager is installed
    Identify CUCM servers in your environment by reviewing hardware inventories, server lists, or network scans. Look for systems running the Cisco Unified Communications Manager service, typically on port 8443 or 443.
    Affected if Your environment contains any Cisco Unified Communications Manager installation regardless of version.
  2. Check authentication rate limiting configuration
    Log into the CUCM Administration interface and navigate to System > Security > Rate Limiting or similar security settings. Verify whether authentication rate limiting is enabled and configured with specific limits on failed login attempts.
    Affected if Rate limiting is disabled, set to excessive values, or not configured at all.
  3. Review authentication logs for repeated failures
    Access CUCM RTMT (Real Time Monitoring Tool) or log files under /var/log/active/cms/ and search for authentication events. Look for patterns of repeated failed login attempts from the same source IP or user account.
    Affected if Logs show many failed authentication attempts occurring in short succession without being blocked.
  4. Monitor system resource usage during authentication activity
    Use CUCM RTMT or native OS tools to observe CPU, memory, and I/O usage on the CUCM server, particularly focusing on the Cisco CallManager service during periods of active authentication traffic.
    Affected if System resources become depleted or application response degrades significantly during authentication-heavy workloads.
  5. Check for network-based evidence of authentication abuse
    Review firewall, IDS/IPS, or network traffic logs for sources generating unusually high volumes of authentication requests toward the CUCM server.
    Affected if Network monitoring shows sustained high volumes of authentication requests from specific sources.

Your environment is affected if you run any version of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and authentication rate limiting is either not enabled, not properly configured, or the system shows signs of resource exhaustion from repeated authentication attempts.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement rate limiting on authentication endpoints, possibly through Cisco-provided patches or configuration of existing rate limiting features if available. Consider network-level controls like IPS/IDS to detect and block rapid repeated attempts.

Fix this in Unified Communications Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-1188 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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