Vulnerability Exposes Cisco Videoscape Devices to DoS Attacks

A security bug that can be exploited for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks has been found in Cisco Videoscape Distribution Suite for Internet Streaming (VDS-IS) and Cisco Videoscape Distribution Suite Service Broker (VDS-SB) products.

Cisco Videoscape Distribution Suite for Internet Streaming (VDS-IS), formerly known as Cisco Content Delivery System for Internet Streaming (CDS-IS), is designed for distributing, caching, and delivering managed content across multiple devices. Cisco Videoscape Distribution Suite Service Broker (VDS SB) is designed for performing client request routing in a multiple Content Delivery Network (CDN) environment.

According to Cisco, a vulnerability caused by improper input validation (CVE-2015-0725) exists in the HTTP processing module of these products. The flaw allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a reload of the affected device -- basically a DoS condition -- by sending it a specially crafted HTTP request.

“Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow the attacker to trigger device instability and could cause a device to reload. Repeated exploitation could result in a sustained DoS condition,” Cisco explained in its advisory.

The vulnerability affects all versions of Cisco VDS-IS and CDS-IS prior to 3.3.1 R7 and 4.0.0 R4. The bug also impacts all versions of Cisco VDS-SB configured as Videoscape Delivery Suite Service Manager (VDSM) and running on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) platform.

Cisco VDS-IS customers can patch the vulnerability by updating to versions 3.3.1 R7, 4.0.0 R4 and 4.1.1. Unfortunately, a fix is not available yet for Cisco VDS-SB and there is no workaround that mitigates the flaw.

Cisco says it’s not aware of instances in which the vulnerability has been exploited for malicious purposes. The security hole was discovered by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center while investigating a customer issue.

The company informed customers last week that a Cisco ASA VPN DoS vulnerability disclosed in October 2014 (CVE-2014-3383) was responsible for disruption to some customers. Cisco analyzed the attack and determined that the source of the traffic causing the disruption had no malicious intent. However, the incident highlights the importance of applying security patches.