CVE-2021-1452

Cisco IOS XE ROM Monitor Software for Cisco Industrial Switches OS Command Injection Vulnerability

MEDIUM
6.8
CVSS Score
Published: March 24, 2021 at 08:06 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:31 AM UTC
6 products affected across 1 vendorIOS Xe Rom MonitorCatalyst Ie3300 Rugged SwitchCatalyst Ie3200 Rugged Switch

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Severity
MEDIUM6.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the ROM Monitor (ROMMON) of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst IE3200, IE3300, and IE3400 Rugged Series Switches, Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Series Switches, and Cisco Embedded Services 3300 Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, physical attacker to execute unsigned code at system boot time. This vulnerability is due to incorrect validations of specific function arguments passed to a boot script when specific ROMMON variables are set. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by setting malicious values for a specific ROMMON variable. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute unsigned code and bypass the image verification check during 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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v ≤ 7.0
cisco-catalyst-ie3200-rugged-switch (environment) · cisco-catalyst-ie3300-rugged-switch (environment) · cisco-catalyst-ie3400-heavy-duty-switch (environment) · cisco-catalyst-ie3400-rugged-switch (environment) · cisco-ess-3300 (environment)
All versions

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

6.8MEDIUMcisco
Attack Vector
PHYSICAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-78

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