CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-1281 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.9

A vulnerability in CLI management in Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to access the underlying operating system as the root user. This vulnerability is due to the way the software handles concurrent CLI sessions. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the device as an administrative user and executing a sequence of commands. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain access to the underlying operating system as the root user.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.9 (2.0)
Published
2021-03-24
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-399

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.9.1
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.9.2
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.9.3
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.9.4
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.10.1
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.10.1a

Showing 6 representative product identities from 59 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

General vulnerability remediation

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Confirm the affected component, deployment paths, reachable interfaces, and enabled features from inventories and configuration, without probing production destructively.
  • Compare the advisory's affected conditions with the repository lockfiles, build manifests, artifacts, and runtime inventory.
  • Identify data sensitivity, trust boundaries, and privilege level for every confirmed affected deployment.

Remediate safely

  • Apply a vendor-supported fix or remove the affected component or feature; record the selected change and its source in the repository.
  • Update direct and transitive dependency locks, generated artifacts, deployment manifests, and asset inventories together.
  • Add a regression test for the documented unsafe condition using inert inputs and preserve rollback instructions.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.