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Prime Collaboration AssuranceOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2018-15438

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-10-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 web-based management interface of Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack and perform arbitrary actions on an affected system. The vulnerability is due to insufficient CSRF protections for the web-based management interface of the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to follow a malicious link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to use a web browser to perform arbitrary actions with the privileges of the user on an affected system.

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 Prime Collaboration Assurance's web-based management interface lacks sufficient CSRF protections, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to craft malicious links that, when clicked by an authenticated user, can trigger arbitrary actions on the affected system with the user's privileges.

MitigationImplement anti-CSRF tokens for all state-changing operations (POST/PUT/DELETE requests), validate Origin/Referer headers server-side, and configure SameSite cookies; apply any available vendor patches.

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
Prime Collaboration AssuranceOperating system
Affected:= 12.1

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

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 Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance installation and version
    Locate the installation directory or check the application's 'about' or 'version' page in the web interface. Common paths: /opt/cisco/pcp or check the service banner on the web management port (typically 443 or 8443).
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 12.1 (any subversion like 12.1.0, 12.1.1, etc.)
  2. Confirm the web-based management interface is accessible
    Attempt to access the web interface URL (typically https://hostname:443/ or https://hostname:8443/) using a browser or curl. Look for the Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance login page.
    Affected if The web management interface responds and is reachable on the network.
  3. Inspect web forms for anti-CSRF token presence
    Log into the web interface, navigate to pages with state-changing operations (such as user management, system configuration, or any form submitting POST/PUT/DELETE requests). View the page source or intercept the HTTP response to check if forms contain hidden CSRF token fields (look for elements like 'csrfToken', 'csrf', 'token', or similar anti-CSRF parameters).
    Affected if Forms lack hidden CSRF token fields or tokens are missing from POST/PUT/DELETE requests.
  4. Check for SameSite cookie attributes
    After logging in, inspect the session cookies set by the application (via browser dev tools or curl -v). Look for the 'SameSite' attribute on cookies.
    Affected if Session cookies do not have the SameSite attribute set, or it is set to 'None' without Secure flags.

If the installed version is Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance 12.1 and the web interface forms lack anti-CSRF tokens, the environment is affected by CVE-2018-15438.

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 anti-CSRF tokens for all state-changing operations (POST/PUT/DELETE requests), validate Origin/Referer headers server-side, and configure SameSite cookies; apply any available vendor patches.

Fix this in Prime Collaboration Assurance Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
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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-2018-15438 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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