Kantech Kt 1 Door Controller FirmwareOperating system · Johnsoncontrols

CVE-2021-27662

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-09-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.01 or later.
See remediation →
90/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
The KT-1 door controller is susceptible to replay or man-in-the-middle attacks where an attacker can record and replay TCP packets. This issue affects Johnson Controls KT-1 all versions up to and including 3.01

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

The Johnson Controls KT-1 door controller lacks replay protection or cryptographic authentication for TCP communications, allowing an attacker to capture and replay valid packets to gain unauthorized physical access.

MitigationImplement cryptographic session validation (e.g., time-based nonces, sequence numbers, or TLS) to prevent replay; coordinate with Johnson Controls for firmware updates; network-segment the door controller to limit exposure.

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
Kantech Kt 1 Door Controller FirmwareOperating system
Affected:<= 3.01

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
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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. Confirm device model
    Identify whether the target system is a Johnson Controls Kantech KT-1 Door Controller through network scanning, device inventory, or management console
    Affected if Device is a KT-1 Door Controller
  2. Check firmware version
    Access the controller's web interface, serial console, or management software to retrieve the installed firmware version
    Affected if Firmware version is 3.01 or lower
  3. Verify TCP communication is enabled
    Examine the controller's network settings or configuration to determine if TCP-based communication for door access operations is active
    Affected if TCP communications are enabled and exposed on the network
  4. Inspect replay protection configuration
    Review the controller's security or communication settings to check whether time-based nonces, sequence numbers, or cryptographic authentication are implemented for TCP sessions
    Affected if No replay protection or cryptographic authentication is configured for TCP traffic

The environment is affected if the device is a KT-1 controller running firmware 3.01 or lower with TCP communications enabled and no replay protection or cryptographic authentication in place.

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 a release after 3.01
Interim mitigation

Implement cryptographic session validation (e.g., time-based nonces, sequence numbers, or TLS) to prevent replay; coordinate with Johnson Controls for firmware updates; network-segment the door controller to limit exposure.

Fix this in Kantech Kt 1 Door Controller Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
34.0 hours of engineering $6,040
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2021-27662 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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