FreeSWITCH susceptible to Denial of Service via DTLS Hello packets during call initiation
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
FreeSWITCH is a Software Defined Telecom Stack enabling the digital transformation from proprietary telecom switches to a software implementation that runs on any commodity hardware. Prior to version 1.10.11, when handling DTLS-SRTP for media setup, FreeSWITCH is susceptible to Denial of Service due to a race condition in the hello handshake phase of the DTLS protocol. This attack can be done continuously, thus denying new DTLS-SRTP encrypted calls during the attack. If an attacker manages to send a ClientHello DTLS message with an invalid CipherSuite (such as `TLS_NULL_WITH_NULL_NULL`) to the port on the FreeSWITCH server that is expecting packets from the caller, a DTLS error is generated. This results in the media session being torn down, which is followed by teardown at signaling (SIP) level too. Abuse of this vulnerability may lead to a massive Denial of Service on vulnerable FreeSWITCH servers for calls that rely on DTLS-SRTP. To address this vulnerability, upgrade FreeSWITCH to 1.10.11 which includes the security fix. The solution implemented is to drop all packets from addresses that have not been validated by an ICE check.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| signalwire | freeswitch | before 1.10.11 | 1.10.11 | Patch available | CNA |
- freeswitch Vendorsignalwire Affected before 1.10.11 Fixed in 1.10.11 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:freeswitch:freeswitch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 1.10.11 | Vulnerable | freeswitch |
- cpe:2.3:a:freeswitch:freeswitch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 1.10.11 Vulnerable ·freeswitch
Remediation
- Fix · CNA freeswitch (signalwire) Fixed in 1.10.11
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-51443
References
More signalwire vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-08915 heap-over-flow in stun_parse_attribute in sofia-sip CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-13049 Heap-based Buffer Overflow and Out-of-bounds Write in Sofia-SIP CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2023-20909 Resource allocation without limits in signalwire freeswitch CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2023-20908 FreeSWITCH allows remote users to trigger out of bounds write by offering an ICE candidate with unknown component ID CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2023-15601 heap-over-flow and integer-overflow in sofia-sip CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2022-13048 Out-of-bounds Read in Sofia-SIP CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences