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CVE Record

CVE-2021-38515: Certain NETGEAR devices are affected by denial of service.

Certain NETGEAR devices are affected by denial of service. This affects R6400v2 before 1.0.4.98, R6700v3 before 1.0.4.98, R7900 before 1.0.3.18, and R8000 before 1.0.4.46.

HighCVSS 7.4Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This CVE is a high-severity availability issue in specific NETGEAR router models. An unauthenticated attacker on an adjacent network could cause a denial of service, disrupting connectivity. The sources identify affected firmware thresholds but provide limited technical detail about the failure mode.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation for affected routers used in business-critical locations or shared network environments. The main risk is outage, not data theft, but router disruption can interrupt operations and security monitoring.

Technical view

CVE-2021-38515 affects NETGEAR R6400v2, R6700v3, R7900, and R8000 routers below listed firmware versions. CVSS 3.1 is 7.4 with adjacent-network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, scope changed, and high availability impact only.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most relevant where affected NETGEAR routers remain on vulnerable firmware and are reachable from an adjacent network segment, such as local Wi-Fi or LAN-adjacent environments. Internet-wide exposure is not established by the provided sources.

Exploitation context

The bundle does not identify active exploitation, public exploit use, or CISA KEV listing. The CVSS vector indicates exploitation does not require authentication or user interaction, but requires adjacent-network access and affects availability rather than confidentiality or integrity.

Researcher notes

Public source detail is sparse: no CWE, no technical root cause, and no exploit narrative are provided. Analysis should stay anchored to the NETGEAR advisory, CVE record, affected model list, and CVSS vector.

Mitigation direction

  • Check NETGEAR advisory PSV-2019-0082 for model-specific guidance.
  • Update R6400v2 and R6700v3 to firmware 1.0.4.98 or later.
  • Update R7900 to firmware 1.0.3.18 or later.
  • Update R8000 to firmware 1.0.4.46 or later.
  • Restrict untrusted access to local wireless and adjacent network segments.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory deployed NETGEAR R6400v2, R6700v3, R7900, and R8000 routers.
  • Compare installed firmware against the affected version thresholds.
  • Confirm firmware updates completed successfully on each affected router.
  • Review availability monitoring for unexplained router outages or service drops.
  • Document any devices that cannot be updated and apply compensating controls.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
3

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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

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CVE-2021-38515 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.4 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:A/A:H/C:N/I:N/PR:N/S:C/UI:N

Official CVE source material

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.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
2Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We 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.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
7.4CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:A/A:H/C:N/I:N/PR:N/S:C/UI:N2.84Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

7.4High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2021-38515Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:A/A:H/C:N/I:N/PR:N/S:C/UI:N

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.