Video Surveillance Media ServerApplication · Cisco
CVE-2018-15449
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 · uneditedA vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Video Surveillance Media Server could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) of the web-based management interface of an affected system. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input by the web-based management interface of the affected service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to click a malicious link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the web-based management interface to become unreachable, resulting in a DoS condition.
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 confidenceA vulnerability in Cisco Video Surveillance Media Server's web-based management interface allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause denial of service by sending malicious links that, when clicked by a user, trigger insufficient input validation, making the interface unreachable.
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
Video Surveillance Media ServerApplication
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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Cisco Video Surveillance Media Server is installedCheck running processes for 'Video Surveillance Media Server' or look for installation directories such as C:\Program Files\Cisco\Video Surveillance Media Server or /opt/cisco/vsms/Affected if The software is present on the system
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Identify management interface network exposureUse netstat or similar tool to check if ports used by the web management interface (commonly HTTP port 80/443 or RTSP ports 554/8554) are listening on network interfaces accessible from outside the local hostAffected if The management interface is bound to a non-loopback address and is reachable from the network
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Check for management interface availabilityAttempt to access the web-based management interface via HTTP/HTTPS. If the interface is unreachable or returns errors consistently, this may indicate exploitationAffected if The web management interface fails to load or responds with errors indicating a denial of service condition
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Review access logs for suspicious requestsExamine web server access logs for unusual patterns, especially requests containing malformed input or signs of link manipulation that could indicate exploitation attemptsAffected if Logs show malformed requests targeting the management interface or unusual patterns consistent with the described attack vector
The environment is affected if Cisco Video Surveillance Media Server is running with its web-based management interface network-accessible and users may have clicked malicious links, as all versions of this product are vulnerable.
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 Cisco's security patch when available; consider network segmentation to isolate the management interface and implement web application firewall rules as a temporary measure.
Fix this in Video Surveillance Media Server
Scoped from the published advisory
- 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-2018-15449 — 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-2018-15449 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