Data Center Network ManagerApplication · Cisco

CVE-2021-1133

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-01-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 11.4 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Multiple vulnerabilities in the REST API endpoint of Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to view, modify, and delete data without proper authorization. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Multiple broken access control vulnerabilities in the REST API of Cisco Data Center Network Manager allow authenticated attackers to perform unauthorized read, write, and delete operations on data outside their intended permissions scope. This is an authorization bypass in the API layer affecting the authentication mechanism.

MitigationApply Cisco's official patches for DCNM. In the interim, restrict network access to DCNM management interfaces to trusted administration IPs and monitor API access logs for anomalous authorized-but-unauthorized activity patterns.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Data Center Network ManagerApplication
Affected:< 11.4\(1\)

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Cisco DCNM installation
    Confirm the system is running Cisco Data Center Network Manager by checking for the DCNM web interface or querying the installed software package
    Affected if DCNM software is present on the system
  2. Check DCNM version
    Access the DCNM web UI (typically at /datacenter) or use CLI to query the installed DCNM version against the version string
    Affected if Installed version is earlier than 11.4(1)
  3. Verify REST API accessibility
    Attempt to reach the DCNM REST API endpoint (typically /api/ resources) from the management network to confirm API is exposed
    Affected if REST API responds to requests without additional authentication beyond baseline login
  4. Review API access logs
    Inspect DCNM audit logs or API access logs for authenticated sessions performing operations outside the user's assigned role permissions
    Affected if Logs show authenticated users accessing data or performing actions outside their documented authorization scope
  5. Check management network exposure
    Verify whether DCNM management interfaces are accessible from networks other than trusted administration IPs
    Affected if DCNM management interface is reachable from untrusted networks

Environment is affected if running Cisco Data Center Network Manager version earlier than 11.4(1) with REST API accessible and the system accepts authenticated sessions that can bypass authorization controls.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 11.4 or later
Fixed in 11.4
Interim mitigation

Apply Cisco's official patches for DCNM. In the interim, restrict network access to DCNM management interfaces to trusted administration IPs and monitor API access logs for anomalous authorized-but-unauthorized activity patterns.

Fix this in Data Center Network Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
25.0 hours of engineering $4,400
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,040.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1133 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-1133 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data