CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-1385 — Cisco Ios security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.5

A vulnerability in the Cisco IOx application hosting environment of multiple Cisco platforms could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to conduct directory traversal attacks and read and write files on the underlying operating system or host system. This vulnerability occurs because the device does not properly validate URIs in IOx API requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted API request that contains directory traversal character sequences to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read or write arbitrary files on the underlying operating system.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2021-03-24
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-22

Affected products

  • cisco / ios / 15.8(3)m2a
  • cisco / ios / 15.8(3)m3
  • cisco / ios / 15.8(3)m4
  • cisco / ios / 15.8(3)m5
  • cisco / ios / 15.8(3)m6
  • cisco / ios / 15.9(3)m

Showing 6 representative product identities from 57 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

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

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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