CVE-2013-3980
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 · uneditedThe Meeting Server in IBM Sametime 8.x through 8.5.2.1 and 9.x through 9.0.0.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (room unusability) by generating a large number of fictitious users to enter a meeting room.
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 Meeting Server in IBM Sametime versions 8.x-8.5.2.1 and 9.x-9.0.0.1 lacks proper validation or rate-limiting on meeting room user joins, allowing remote attackers to flood rooms with fictitious/virtual users and render them unusable for legitimate participants.
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= 8.0.0.0= 8.0.1.0= 8.0.1.1= 8.0.2.0= 8.0.2.1= 8.5.0.0= 8.5.1.0= 8.5.1.1= 8.5.2.0= 8.5.2.1= 9.0.0.0= 9.0.0.1CVSS 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 IBM Sametime installation versionLocate and inspect the IBM Sametime installation to determine the exact version number (for example, check product documentation, installation logs, or version information in the control panel)Affected if The installed version matches any of these: 8.0.0.0, 8.0.1.0, 8.0.1.1, 8.0.2.0, 8.0.2.1, 8.5.0.0, 8.5.1.0, 8.5.1.1, 8.5.2.0, 8.5.2.1, 9.0.0.0, or 9.0.0.1
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Confirm Meeting Server component is activeVerify that the Sametime Meeting Server component is installed and running as part of the Sametime deploymentAffected if The Meeting Server component is present and operational in the environment
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Check meeting room join configurationInspect the Meeting Server configuration to determine whether guest or anonymous user joins are permitted without authenticationAffected if Unauthenticated or anonymous users are allowed to join meeting rooms without any verification requirements
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Verify rate-limiting controls for room joinsReview Meeting Server settings to determine if any rate-limiting, throttling, or request throttling controls are configured to restrict excessive join requests from a single sourceAffected if No rate-limiting or throttling mechanism is configured to prevent rapid or repeated meeting room join requests
If the installed IBM Sametime version is 8.x through 8.5.2.1 or 9.x through 9.0.0.1 AND the Meeting Server is active AND unauthenticated room joins are possible without rate-limiting controls, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2013-3980.
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 user authentication requirements and rate-limiting controls for meeting room access to prevent unauthenticated or excessive user spawns; apply vendor patches when available.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3980 — 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-2013-3980 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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