Cisco SD-WAN Command Injection Vulnerabilities
Description
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco SD-WAN products could allow an authenticated attacker to perform command injection attacks against an affected device, which could allow the attacker to take certain actions with root privileges on the device. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
Authenticated local attacker with read-only CLI access can exploit insufficient input validation in tcpdump to execute arbitrary commands as root on Cisco SD-WAN devices.
Vulnerability
CVE-2021-1261 is a command injection vulnerability in the tcpdump CLI utility of Cisco SD-WAN Software [1]. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input to the tcpdump command. An authenticated, local attacker with read-only credentials can exploit this issue. The affected software includes Cisco SD-WAN products running vulnerable releases.
Exploitation
An attacker must have local CLI access to an affected Cisco SD-WAN device with read-only user privileges. The attacker then submits crafted input to the tcpdump command, which is executed without proper sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary commands [1]. No user interaction beyond the attacker's own actions is required.
Impact
Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the affected device. This grants full control over the system, enabling data disclosure, modification, or disruption of services [1].
Mitigation
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability [1]. Users should upgrade to a fixed version as specified in the Cisco Security Advisory. There are no workarounds available [1].
AI Insight generated on May 26, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.
Affected products
2- Range: n/a
Patches
0No patches discovered yet.
Vulnerability mechanics
AI mechanics synthesis has not run for this CVE yet.
References
1- tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sdwan-cmdinjm-9QMSmgcnmitrevendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCO
News mentions
0No linked articles in our index yet.