CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-1258 — Cisco Anyconnect Secure Mobility Client security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

A vulnerability in the upgrade component of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could allow an authenticated, local attacker with low privileges to read arbitrary files on the underlying operating system (OS) of an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient file permission restrictions. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted command from the local CLI to the application. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read arbitrary files on the underlying OS of the affected device. The attacker would need to have valid user credentials to exploit this vulnerability.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.1)
Published
2021-01-13
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-264, CWE-269

Affected products

  • cisco / anyconnect_secure_mobility_client
  • mcafee / agent_epolicy_orchestrator_extension

Showing 2 representative product identities from 4 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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