CVE-2021-34737

Cisco IOS XR Software DHCP Version 4 Server Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 9, 2021 at 05:01 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:56 AM UTC
37 products affected across 1 vendorIOS XrAsr 9010Asr 9904

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the DHCP version 4 (DHCPv4) server feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to trigger a crash of the dhcpd process, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability exists because certain DHCPv4 messages are improperly validated when they are processed by an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a malformed DHCPv4 message to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a NULL pointer dereference, resulting in a crash of the dhcpd process. While the dhcpd process is restarting, which may take up to approximately two minutes, DHCPv4 server services are unavailable on the affected device. This could temporarily prevent network access to clients that join the network during that time period. Note: Only the dhcpd process crashes and eventually restarts automatically. The router does not reload.

Affected

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

v < 7.3.27.4.0 ≤ v ≤ 7.4.17.4.0 ≤ v < 7.4.1
Affected range stops below 7.3.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 7.4.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
cisco-asr-9000v-v2 (environment) · cisco-asr-9001 (environment) · cisco-asr-9006 (environment) · cisco-asr-9010 (environment) · cisco-asr-9901 (environment) · cisco-asr-9902 (environment) · cisco-asr-9903 (environment) · cisco-asr-9904 (environment) · cisco-asr-9906 (environment) · cisco-asr-9910 (environment) · cisco-asr-9912 (environment) · cisco-asr-9922 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5001 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5002 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5011 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5501 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5501-se (environment) · cisco-ncs-5502 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5502-se (environment) · cisco-ncs-5508 (environment) · cisco-ncs-5516 (environment) · cisco-ncs-560-4 (environment) · cisco-ncs-560-7 (environment) · cisco-ncs540-12z20g-sys-a (environment) · cisco-ncs540-12z20g-sys-d (environment) · cisco-ncs540-24z8q2c-m (environment) · cisco-ncs540-24z8q2c-sys (environment) · cisco-ncs540-28z4c-sys-a (environment) · cisco-ncs540-28z4c-sys-d (environment) · cisco-ncs540-acc-sys (environment) · cisco-ncs540x-12z16g-sys-a (environment) · cisco-ncs540x-12z16g-sys-d (environment) · cisco-ncs540x-16z4g8q2c-a (environment) · cisco-ncs540x-16z4g8q2c-d (environment) · cisco-ncs540x-acc-sys (environment) · cisco-ios-xrv-9000 (same device)
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
All versions
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 exploitAutomatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-476

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