Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
These Cisco Small Business routers have management-interface flaws that let an attacker with administrator credentials run code as root or force reboots. Cisco reported no software updates for the issue. Business risk is highest where these routers remain reachable for administration or where administrator credentials may be compromised.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority legacy edge-device risk. The credential requirement lowers likelihood, but root execution and no vendor software update create material impact if admin access is compromised.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1208 affects the web-based management interface on Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W routers. Improper input validation can allow crafted HTTP requests from an authenticated remote administrator to execute arbitrary root-level code or reload the device, causing denial of service.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to affected Cisco Small Business RV-series routers with web management access and valid administrator credentials. Internet-facing or broadly reachable management interfaces increase operational risk.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not state active exploitation, and the CVE is not marked KEV. Exploitation requires valid administrator credentials and network access to the management interface.
Researcher notes
The public bundle identifies CWE-121 and CVSS 3.1 score 7.2 with PR:H. Evidence supports authenticated management-interface RCE and DoS, but does not provide patch availability, exploit maturity, or detailed affected firmware ranges.
Mitigation direction
- Review the Cisco advisory for affected-device guidance and operational recommendations.
- Identify and replace or retire affected routers where no fixed software is available.
- Restrict management-interface access to trusted administrative networks.
- Audit administrator accounts and remove unused or weakly controlled access.
- Monitor for unexpected router reloads or suspicious management activity.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W devices.
- Confirm whether web-based management is reachable from untrusted networks.
- Review administrator account ownership, necessity, and credential controls.
- Check router uptime and logs for unexpected reload events.
- Track Cisco advisory updates for any changed remediation guidance.
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-2021-1208 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.
