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Fencer Vulns
high 8.6

CVE-2021-1446 json

Cisco IOS XE Software DNS NAT Protocol Application Layer Gateway Denial of Service Vulnerability

published 2021-03-24 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-6913

cvss
8.6
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.5%
EPSS 1.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A vulnerability in the DNS application layer gateway (ALG) functionality used by Network Address Translation (NAT) in Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to reload. The vulnerability is due to a logic error that occurs when an affected device inspects certain DNS packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted DNS packets through an affected device that is performing NAT for DNS packets. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to cause the device to reload, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability can be exploited only by traffic that is sent through an affected device via IPv4 packets. The vulnerability cannot be exploited via IPv6 traffic.

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

cisa ICSA-22-300-03 updated cvss 8.6

Rockwell Automation Stratix Devices Containing Cisco IOS

  • Rockwell Automation Stratix Devices <16.12.01
    affected: mitigation “Rockwell Automation has addressed these vulnerabilities updates and encourages users to combine these updates with Rockwell Automation's Security Best Practices:” rockwellautomation.custhelp.com

From CISA ICS and IT advisories (CSAF, https://github.com/cisagov/CSAF), a U.S. Government work; changed: reduced to products, statuses and remediations. CISA notification · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

1.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.1 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Affected products

  • Cisco Cisco IOS XE Software

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.