CVE-2021-34720 | Cisco IOS XR Software IP Service Level Agreements and Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol Denial of Service Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the IP Service Level Agreements (IP SLA) responder and Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) features of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause device packet memory to become exhausted or cause the IP SLA process to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability exists because socket creation failures are mishandled during the IP SLA and TWAMP processes. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specific IP SLA or TWAMP packets to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust the packet memory, which will impact other processes, such as routing protocols, or crash the IP SLA process.

Published: 2021-09-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-34720 is rated Moderate Risk (58.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.25%). 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-2021-34720

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 0.38% 1.25% +0.87%
2 2025-12-28 0.46% 0.38% -0.08%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.46% —

Full EPSS history (19 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-34720

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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.
 3.9 4.0 [email protected]
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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.
 3.9 4.0 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-34720

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-34720

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cisco ios_xr < 6.2.3 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco ios_xr >= 6.3.0, < 6.3.2 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cisco ios_xr >= 6.5.0, < 7.2.2 cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-34720

cvelogic Threat Intelligence