Cisco Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server Maintenance Manual

Use hacker lockout

MeetingPlace offers a “hacker lockout” feature, which deactivates any user 
profile after a number of consecutive unsuccessful login attempts. You define 
the number of attempts. To do so: In the Configure tab, select the 

 topic. Then enter the maximum number of attempts to access the 

user profiles.

After users reach the maximum number of retries by telephone, the profile is 
locked. Further attempts to log in result in a “Profile is invalid” message, the 
caller is transferred to the attendant, and a minor alarm is generated.

To unlock a user’s profile: In the System tab, select the 

 

action, and change the 

setting in the profile to 

. (Until you do, 

this profile cannot be used.) For more information on resetting locked profiles, 
see 

Users who exceed the limit of password attempts by computer in MeetingTime 
are exited from the application. Users can then double-click the MeetingTime 
icon and try again. (Security is less stringent from the computer than from the 
phone because outdialing is not an issue.)

This feature can expose the server to a denial of service attack: a hacker 

simply goes through the list of profiles and locks them all by entering bad 
passwords, which renders the system unusable until the system manager 
unlocks the accounts. Hackers can (and will) avoid the lockout by trying 
different profile numbers with the same commonly used password rather than 
the other way around. Consequently, many secure installations do not employ 
this feature. It is recommended that you weigh the costs of possibly making it 
easier for a hacker to break into an account versus the costs of managing 
locked accounts and running the risk of critical accounts being locked in an 
emergency.

Keep the database 
current

You can also ensure user profile security by maintaining an up-to-date user 
database. For example, delete or deactivate user profiles of employees who 
leave the company. For details on removing profiles from the system, see 

Use MeetingPlace 
SNMP agent

The MeetingPlace Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent 
comes preconfigured with communities labeled “MeetingPlace-public” and 
“MeetingPlace-private.” To prevent unauthorized queries, it is recommended 
that you change these community names to names chosen by the customer. For 
details on changing community names, see 

The MeetingPlace SNMP agent is based on SNMPv1 code, which has security 
vulnerabilities known to hackers. It is recommended that you block the SNMP 
port using a firewall. If the MeetingPlace Audio Server is located so that a 
firewall cannot protect the SNMP port, it is recommended that you disable 
SNMP queries. This can be done without disabling trap generation. Before you 
shut down the SNMP agent, please contact your MeetingPlace support 
representative.