Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw lets someone who can already enter a Cisco Webex meeting try to take the host role by brute forcing the host key. It does not describe full platform compromise, but host takeover can disrupt meetings, change controls, and undermine trust in sensitive sessions.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate business risk for organizations using Webex for executive, customer, legal, or operationally sensitive meetings. Prioritize verification and Cisco-guided remediation, but this is not evidenced as internet-wide unauthenticated compromise.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1311 affects the reclaim host role feature in Cisco Webex Meetings and Cisco Webex Meetings Server. The issue is missing brute-force protection for the host key, classified as CWE-307. CVSS 3.1 is 5.4 with network access and low privileges required.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most relevant to organizations using Cisco Webex Meetings or Webex Meetings Server for protected meetings. The provided bundle does not identify affected versions beyond the product names, so teams must verify exact exposure against Cisco guidance.
Exploitation context
The attacker must be authenticated enough to join the target Webex meeting and have any required join links or passwords. The bundle does not cite active exploitation, public weaponization, or CISA KEV listing.
Researcher notes
Key constraint is prerequisite meeting access, reflected by PR:L. Impact is limited confidentiality but low integrity and availability impact through host role takeover. The bundle lacks version and fix detail, so avoid assumptions beyond Cisco’s advisory.
Mitigation direction
- Review the Cisco advisory for affected and fixed release details.
- Apply Cisco-recommended updates or service-side remediations where applicable.
- Restrict meeting links and passwords to intended participants only.
- Use stronger meeting access controls for sensitive meetings.
- Reissue or rotate meeting details after suspected unauthorized access.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco Webex Meetings Server deployments and managed Webex sites.
- Compare deployment details against Cisco advisory affected-version guidance.
- Confirm sensitive meetings require appropriate passwords or access controls.
- Review meeting records for unexpected host role changes where available.
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-307: 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 lookupCVE-2021-1311 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.4 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L2.82.5Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.4MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20210113 Cisco Webex Meetings and Cisco Webex Meetings Server Host Key Brute Forcing VulnerabilityCVE 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.
Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
