CVE-2021-1462 | Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected system. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to have a valid Administrator account on an affected system. The vulnerability is due to incorrect privilege assignment. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to an affected system with an Administrator account and creating a malicious file, which the system would parse at a later time. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain root privileges on the affected system.Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.

Published: 2024-11-18 Last update: 2025-08-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-1462 is rated Low Risk (34.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2021-1462

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 2025-12-27 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
2 2024-11-19 0.04%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-1462

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
0.8 5.9 [email protected]
4.4 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-1462

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-1462

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.6 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.7 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.8 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.9 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 17.2.10 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:17.2.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.3 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.4 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.5 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.6.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.6.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.7 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.3.8 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.3.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.3 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.4 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.5 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.302 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.302:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 18.4.303 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:18.4.303:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.0.1a cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.0.1a:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.097 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.097:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.098 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.098:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.2.099 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.2.099:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 19.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:19.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 20.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:20.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 20.1.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:20.1.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco catalyst_sd-wan_manager 20.1.12 cpe:2.3:a:cisco:catalyst_sd-wan_manager:20.1.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-1462

cvelogic Threat Intelligence