CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-1619 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

A vulnerability in the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) function of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass NETCONF or RESTCONF authentication and do either of the following: Install, manipulate, or delete the configuration of an affected device Cause memory corruption that results in a denial of service (DoS) on an affected device This vulnerability is due to an uninitialized variable. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of NETCONF or RESTCONF requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to use NETCONF or RESTCONF to install, manipulate, or delete the configuration of a network device or to corrupt memory on the device, resulting a DoS.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2021-09-23
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-824, CWE-908

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.1
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.1a
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.2
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.3
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.4
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.5

Showing 6 representative product identities from 264 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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

Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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