Unified Ip Phone FirmwareOperating system · Cisco
CVE-2013-6685
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 firmware on Cisco Unified IP phones 8961, 9951, and 9971 uses weak permissions for memory block devices, which allows local users to gain privileges by mounting a device with a setuid file in its filesystem, aka Bug ID CSCui04382.
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 firmware on Cisco Unified IP phones 8961, 9951, and 9971 contains weak permissions on memory block devices, allowing a local unprivileged user to mount a device containing a setuid binary and escalate privileges to root.
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 Phone FirmwareOperating system
all versions
Unified Ip Phone 8961Hardware / appliance
all versions
Unified Ip Phone 9951Hardware / appliance
all versions
Unified Ip Phone 9971Hardware / appliance
all versionsCVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- Single
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Inventory affected phone modelsSearch your device inventory, network scans, or physically inspect Cisco Unified IP phones to identify if models 8961, 9951, or 9971 are present in your environment.Affected if Any Cisco Unified IP Phone 8961, 9951, or 9971 devices are found in the environment
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Verify physical security postureDetermine whether these phones are located in areas with unrestricted physical access or if local console connections (via USB, serial, or Ethernet) are available to untrusted users.Affected if Untrusted individuals can physically access the phones or connect local console cables
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Audit for unauthorized mounting activityReview system logs, device event logs, or any available monitoring data on the phones for evidence of unexpected block device mounts or storage media connections.Affected if Evidence exists of mounting memory block devices on these phones by unprivileged users
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Check user access controlsReview whether any local user accounts on these phones have been created or if shared/default credentials are in use that could allow unprivileged access.Affected if Multiple users or untrusted accounts have local access to the phone firmware
A user is affected if they have Cisco Unified IP Phone 8961, 9951, or 9971 devices with physical or local console access available to unprivileged individuals.
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 dataApply available Cisco firmware updates for these phone models. If no update exists, restrict physical and local console access to these devices and monitor for unauthorized mounting attempts.
Fix this in Unified Ip Phone Firmware
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $4,880.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-6685 — 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-2013-6685 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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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.
- 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