# CVE-2018-15396: Cisco Unity Connection File Upload Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An authenticated administrator can cause a denial of service by uploading large files that exhaust disk space in Cisco Unity Connection.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 26 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-fvmw-88r5-vrp4

## What is CVE-2018-15396?

CVE-2018-15396 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Unity Connection, published on 5 Oct 2018. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Bulk Administration Tool (BAT) for Cisco Unity Connection could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause high disk utilization, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability exists because the affected software does not restrict the maximum size of certain files that can be written to disk. An attacker who has valid administrator credentials for an affected system could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted, remote connection request to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to write a file that consumes most of the available disk space on the system, causing application functions to operate abnormally and leading to a DoS condition.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-15396?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Unity Connection.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-15396?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-15396 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-15396 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15396 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Unity Connection

- [CVE-2014-3333](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3333/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2012-0366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-0366/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2026-20034](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20034/): Cisco Unity Connection Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2012-3060](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3060/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2012-0367](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-0367/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-15396 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-15396 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Unity Connection, published on 5 Oct 2018. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15396 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Unity Connection. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15396/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15396/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-15396
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15396
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-15396

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15396/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.