CVE-2021-1453 Cisco IOS XE Software for the Catalyst 9000 Family Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability

Medium 6.8 Published 24 Mar 2021 Updated 8 Nov 2024

An attacker with physical access can bypass secure boot verification to execute unsigned code on Cisco Catalyst switches.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2021-1453?

CVE-2021-1453 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 24 Mar 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in the software image verification functionality of Cisco IOS XE Software for the Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family of switches could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to execute unsigned code at system boot time. The vulnerability is due to an improper check in the code function that manages the verification of the digital signatures of system image files during the initial boot process. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by loading unsigned software on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to boot a malicious software image or execute unsigned code and bypass the image verification check part of the secure boot process of an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have unauthenticated physical access to the device or obtain privileged access to the root shell on the device.

Weakness: CWE-347

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-1453?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Cisco Ios Xe.

How do I fix CVE-2021-1453?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-1453 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2021-1453 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-1453 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Ios Xe vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-j5cc-94pp-784r.