Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw affects Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W routers. A remote attacker with valid administrator credentials could abuse the management web interface to run code as root or force a restart. Cisco has not released software updates for this issue, so continued use requires careful exposure review.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority legacy network-edge risk where affected devices remain deployed. The need for admin credentials lowers opportunistic exposure, but root-level execution and no cited software update increase urgency for inventory, access restriction, and replacement planning.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1203 is an authenticated remote command execution and denial-of-service issue in the routers' web-based management interface. The cited cause is improper validation of user-supplied input. Exploitation uses crafted HTTP requests after administrator authentication and may result in root-level code execution or device reload.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to the named Cisco Small Business router models and depends on access to valid administrator credentials and the management interface. The source bundle does not provide affected firmware version ranges, so asset owners should verify model and firmware status against Cisco's advisory.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not indicate active exploitation, and KEV status is false. The main risk is from compromised, reused, or shared administrator credentials, especially where the management interface is reachable from untrusted networks. No exploit details are needed to understand the business impact.
Researcher notes
The available evidence supports authenticated RCE and DoS via management-interface input validation flaws. CVSS is 7.2 with high privileges required and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. The bundle lacks firmware version detail, named mitigations, and public exploitation evidence.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco's advisory for current vendor guidance and device status.
- Inventory RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W routers in production.
- Restrict management interface access to trusted administration paths only.
- Review administrator credential hygiene and remove unused accounts.
- Plan replacement or compensating controls where no vendor update exists.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any listed router models are deployed.
- Identify whether the web management interface is remotely reachable.
- Verify who has administrator credentials on affected devices.
- Review device logs for unexpected authenticated management activity.
- Check for unexpected reloads or availability incidents.
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-2021-1203 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.