CVE-2021-1440 | Cisco IOS XR Software BGP Resource Public Key Infrastructure Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the implementation of the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) process to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability is due to the incorrect handling of a specific RPKI to Router (RTR) Protocol packet header. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by compromising the RPKI validator server and sending a specifically crafted RTR packet to an affected device. Alternatively, the attacker could use man-in-the-middle techniques to impersonate the RPKI validator server and send a specifically crafted RTR response packet over the established RTR TCP connection to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause a DoS condition because the BGP process could constantly restart and BGP routing could become unstable.Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.This advisory is part of the September 2021 release of the Cisco IOS XR Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see .

Published: 2024-11-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-1440 is rated Moderate Risk (45/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.77%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-1440

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.75% 0.77% +0.03%
2 2026-03-06 0.57% 0.75% +0.17%
3 2025-12-28 0.57%

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-1440

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.2 4.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-1440

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-1440

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco ios_xr >= 4.3.0, < 7.3.1 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-1440

cvelogic Threat Intelligence