Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-1616

Medium

Published: 23 September 2021

Published
23 September 2021
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0058 69.5th percentile
Risk Priority 10 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-1616 is a medium-severity Protection Mechanism Failure (CWE-693) vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 30.5% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

A vulnerability in the H.323 application level gateway (ALG) used by the Network Address Translation (NAT) feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass the ALG. This vulnerability is due to insufficient data validation…

more

of traffic that is traversing the ALG. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted traffic to a targeted device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass the ALG and open connections that should not be allowed to a remote device located behind the ALG. Note: This vulnerability has been publicly discussed as NAT Slipstreaming.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

cisco
ios xe
≤ 17.6.1

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-693

Implements a reliable, tamperproof protection mechanism whose completeness can be assured.

addresses: CWE-693

Procedures for training on protection mechanisms reduce the chance of protection mechanism failures being present or exploitable.

addresses: CWE-693

Documented procedures to implement assessment, authorization, and monitoring controls prevent these protection mechanisms from failing due to undefined processes.

addresses: CWE-693

Direct evaluation of whether controls produce desired security outcomes detects protection mechanism failures and enables remediation.

addresses: CWE-693

Requires assessment that protection mechanisms are correctly implemented and producing intended security outcomes.

addresses: CWE-693

The POA&M process ensures identified weaknesses in protection mechanisms are documented and scheduled for remediation, reducing the duration they remain exploitable.

addresses: CWE-693

Ongoing control assessments and analysis of monitoring data enable timely detection and response when protection mechanisms fail.

addresses: CWE-693

Impact analysis identifies changes that could weaken or disable existing protection mechanisms.

References