CVE-2021-1561 | Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Spam Quarantine Unauthorized Access Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the spam quarantine feature of Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager, formerly Cisco Security Management Appliance (SMA), could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized access and modify the spam quarantine settings of another user. This vulnerability exists because access to the spam quarantine feature is not properly restricted. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious requests to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to modify another user's spam quarantine settings, possibly disabling security controls or viewing email messages stored on the spam quarantine interfaces.

Published: 2021-08-18 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-1561 is rated Low Risk (39.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.74%). 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-2021-1561

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 0.09% 0.74% +0.66%
2 2023-03-07 1.05% 0.09% -0.97%
3 2022-04-01 1.05%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-1561

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 2.5 [email protected]
5.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 2.5 [email protected]
5.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-1561

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-1561

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco secure_email_and_web_manager <= 14.1 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:secure_email_and_web_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-1561

cvelogic Threat Intelligence