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Unified Ip Phones 9900 Series FirmwareOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2013-5533

MEDIUM · 6.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-10-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
The image-upgrade functionality on Cisco 9900 Unified IP phones allows local users to gain privileges by placing shell commands in an unspecified parameter, aka Bug ID CSCuh10334.

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 confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco 9900 Unified IP phone firmware's image-upgrade functionality allows authenticated local users to inject shell commands through an unspecified parameter, achieving elevated privileges beyond their normal access level.

MitigationRestrict physical and console access to IP phones; apply Cisco firmware updates when available; disable unnecessary upgrade paths if not required for operations.

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 Ip Phones 9900 Series FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Unified Ip Phone 9951Hardware / appliance
Affected:all versions
Unified Ip Phone 9971Hardware / appliance
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
Local
Complexity
High
Authentication
Single
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

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. Identify the phone model
    Check the physical device label or access the device web interface at /localman or via SSH/Telnet to the device and run 'show device' or 'show version' to confirm the model number
    Affected if Model is Cisco Unified IP Phone 9900 Series, 9951, or 9971
  2. Confirm firmware version
    Access the device console or web interface and run 'show version' to display the installed firmware version
    Affected if Any firmware version is installed (all versions affected)
  3. Verify console or SSH access is available
    Attempt to access the device console port (RS-232) or check if SSH/Telnet is enabled on the device by attempting connection to port 22 or 23
    Affected if Console, SSH, or Telnet access is enabled and reachable on the network

You are affected if you have a Cisco Unified IP Phone 9900, 9951, or 9971 with console, SSH, or Telnet access enabled, as the privilege escalation requires authenticated local access to the image-upgrade functionality.

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

Restrict physical and console access to IP phones; apply Cisco firmware updates when available; disable unnecessary upgrade paths if not required for operations.

Fix this in Unified Ip Phones 9900 Series Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2013-5533 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
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data