Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
An attacker who already has a high-privileged account could abuse Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance’s management interface to run commands or read/write files as root. This is not a drive-by internet bug, but compromise of an admin account or insider misuse could become full appliance control.
Executive priority
Treat this as a targeted administrative-plane risk. Prioritize if the appliance manages sensitive infrastructure or if admin access is broadly assigned. The urgency is lower than unauthenticated internet-exploited issues, but root-level impact justifies timely validation and remediation.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1618 covers path traversal and command injection in the web-based management interface, caused by insufficient input validation. Exploitation is remote and network-based, but requires high privileges. Successful exploitation can allow arbitrary file read/write or arbitrary command execution as root. CVSS v3.1 score is 6.5.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance deployments with reachable web management interfaces and users holding high privileges. The supplied sources do not identify specific affected version ranges, so teams should confirm applicability through Cisco’s advisory and asset inventory.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not report active exploitation, and CISA KEV status is false. Practical exploitation requires authenticated high-privilege access, making account compromise, excessive administrator access, or insider misuse the main concern.
Researcher notes
The key constraints are PR:H and UI:N with high confidentiality and integrity impact. The bundle identifies CWE-36 and mentions command injection, but does not provide separate identifiers, fixed versions, exploit details, or workaround text. Avoid assuming affected versions beyond Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco’s advisory for affected releases, fixed versions, and official guidance.
- Restrict management interface access to trusted administrative networks only.
- Audit and reduce high-privilege accounts on affected appliances.
- Enforce strong authentication and credential hygiene for appliance administrators.
- Monitor appliance logs for suspicious file or command activity.
Validation and detection
- Inventory all Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance deployments.
- Confirm appliance versions against Cisco’s advisory guidance.
- Verify the management interface is not broadly reachable.
- Review privileged user lists for unnecessary access.
- Check logs for unusual authenticated administrative actions.
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-36: 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 lookupFile access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references file access or upload behavior, so file telemetry and web shell review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-1618 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
- 6.5 (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:N
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:N1.25.2Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20210721 Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance 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.
Absolute Path Traversal
Absolute Path Traversal represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
