Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
These Cisco small-business routers have management-interface flaws that can let someone with administrator credentials take over the device or crash it. Cisco did not release software updates for the affected models, so exposure depends heavily on whether these routers are still deployed and how tightly management access is controlled.
Executive priority
Treat as a high-priority legacy network-device risk. The main business concern is unsupported router compromise or outage, especially where management access is broadly reachable or administrator credentials may be shared, stale, or weakly controlled.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1178 affects Cisco RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W router web management interfaces. Improper validation of supplied input, mapped to CWE-121, can allow authenticated remote arbitrary code execution as root or device reload causing denial of service. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.2 with high privileges required.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to environments still running the named Cisco Small Business RV routers. The attacker must have valid administrator credentials, but successful exploitation could fully compromise the router or disrupt availability.
Exploitation context
The supplied sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. Exploitation requires authenticated administrator access and crafted HTTP requests to the web-based management interface. No public exploit status is established by the provided bundle.
Researcher notes
Key constraints are authenticated access, network reachability to the management interface, and the absence of Cisco software fixes in the cited advisory. Avoid assuming unauthenticated exploitation, affected products beyond the listed models, or active exploitation without additional evidence.
Mitigation direction
- Check Cisco advisory and current vendor guidance for available operational recommendations.
- Identify and retire or replace affected routers where feasible.
- Restrict web management access to trusted administrative networks only.
- Review and tighten administrator credential management for these devices.
- Monitor affected routers for unexpected reboots or management activity.
Validation and detection
- Inventory RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W devices in production.
- Confirm whether web-based management is reachable from untrusted networks.
- Review administrator accounts and remove unnecessary access.
- Check logs for unexpected management sessions or device reloads.
- Document Cisco's stated absence of software updates for remediation tracking.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-121: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-1178 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.2 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H1.25.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.2HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20210113 Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W Routers Management Interface Remote Command Execution and Denial of Service VulnerabilitiesCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Stack-based Buffer Overflow
Stack-based Buffer Overflow represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.