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Telepresence Video Communication ServerApplication · Cisco

CVE-2019-1845

HIGH · 8.6 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-06-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 authentication service of the Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence (Unified CM IM&P) Service, Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS), and Cisco Expressway Series could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a service outage for users attempting to authenticate, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to insufficient controls for specific memory operations. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) authentication request to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause an unexpected restart of the authentication service, preventing users from successfully authenticating. Exploitation of this vulnerability does not impact users who were authenticated prior to an attack.

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

A vulnerability in the authentication service of Cisco Unified CM IM&P, TelePresence VCS, and Expressway Series stems from insufficient memory operation controls during XMPP authentication processing. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send malformed XMPP authentication requests that trigger an unexpected restart of the authentication service, causing denial of service for users attempting to log in.

MitigationApply vendor-provided security patches from Cisco for the affected products; until patches are available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of the XMPP authentication service to untrusted networks.

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:>= x8.1, <= x12.5.2
Unified Communications Manager Im And Presence ServiceApplication
Affected:= 11.5\(1\)

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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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. Identify the installed Cisco product
    Determine if the system is running Cisco Telepresence Video Communication Server (VCS), Expressway Series, or Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service. Check system documentation or use CLI commands such as 'show version' on VCS/Expressway or 'utils core management list' on Unified CM.
    Affected if The product is Cisco Telepresence VCS, Expressway Series, or Unified CM IM&P.
  2. Check the installed version against affected ranges
    Retrieve the software version. For VCS/Expressway, use 'show version' CLI command. For Unified CM IM&P, use the Cisco Unified CM Administration interface or 'utils core management list' command. Compare the version to the affected ranges: VCS/Expressway versions x8.1 through x12.5.2, or Unified CM IM&P version 11.5(1).
    Affected if The version falls within >= x8.1 to <= x12.5.2 for VCS/Expressway, or equals 11.5(1) for Unified CM IM&P.
  3. Verify XMPP service is enabled
    Check if the XMPP authentication service is active. For VCS/Expressway, review the XMPP configuration in the administrative interface or check via CLI with commands like 'show xmpp' or review the service status. For Unified CM IM&P, verify the IM and Presence service is running and XMPP is configured.
    Affected if XMPP authentication service is enabled and running on the system.
  4. Assess network exposure of XMPP port
    Identify if the XMPP port (typically TCP 5222) is exposed to untrusted networks. Review firewall rules, ACLs, and interface configurations to determine if the XMPP authentication service is reachable from outside the trusted network.
    Affected if Port 5222 or XMPP service is accessible from untrusted or external networks without proper filtering.

You are affected if you are running a vulnerable version of Cisco VCS/Expressway (x8.1 to x12.5.2) or Unified CM IM&P (11.5(1)) with XMPP authentication service enabled and exposed to the network where an attacker could send malformed XMPP requests.

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 vendor-provided security patches from Cisco for the affected products; until patches are available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of the XMPP authentication service to untrusted networks.

Fix this in Telepresence Video Communication Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,840
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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-2019-1845 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