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Telepresence Video Communication ServerApplication · Cisco

CVE-2018-0358

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2018-06-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
A vulnerability in the file descriptor handling of Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) Expressway could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to exhaustion of file descriptors while processing a high volume of traffic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by establishing a high number of concurrent TCP connections to the vulnerable system. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a restart in a specific process, resulting in a temporary interruption of service. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvh77056, CSCvh77058, CSCvh95264.

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

A file descriptor handling vulnerability in Cisco TelePresence VCS Expressway allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting available file descriptors through establishing a high volume of concurrent TCP connections. This resource exhaustion triggers a process restart, resulting in temporary service interruption.

MitigationApply the vendor patch when available; until then, implement network-level connection rate limiting or firewall rules to restrict the number of concurrent connections from external sources.

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
Telepresence Video Communication ServerApplication
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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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 TelePresence VCS Expressway is installed
    Log into the VCS admin interface or run 'show version' via CLI to identify the device model and software version
    Affected if The device is a Cisco TelePresence VCS Expressway (all versions are affected)
  2. Check network exposure of the VCS
    Review the VCS network configuration in the admin interface under 'Network > Interfaces' or use CLI 'show network-connections' to determine if the VCS is bound to external-facing interfaces
    Affected if The VCS is accessible from external/untrusted networks on TCP ports (default: 443, 80, 5060)
  3. Review external access authentication settings
    In VCS admin, check 'Configuration > Authentication' and 'Configuration > Traversal Subzones' to verify if unauthenticated external connections are permitted
    Affected if The VCS allows unauthenticated or traversal zone connections from external sources without restriction
  4. Monitor current concurrent TCP connections
    Use CLI command 'show network-connections' or check system resources via 'show system resources' to observe active connection count relative to limits
    Affected if Connection counts approach or fluctuate significantly, indicating potential resource exhaustion attempts
  5. Check for unexpected process restarts
    Review VCS logs via 'Event Log' in admin or CLI 'last restart' to identify any unexplained process restarts
    Affected if The presence of frequent or unexplained process restarts, particularly in the event logs around high connection periods

If the system is a Cisco TelePresence VCS Expressway exposed to external TCP connections without adequate connection rate limiting, it is vulnerable to CVE-2018-0358 file descriptor exhaustion attacks.

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

Apply the vendor patch when available; until then, implement network-level connection rate limiting or firewall rules to restrict the number of concurrent connections from external sources.

Fix this in Telepresence Video Communication Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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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-2018-0358 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
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