Threats / Cisco / CVE-2021-1497
CVE-2021-1497
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Cisco HyperFlex HX vulnerability
Cisco HyperFlex HX Installer contains insufficient input validation allowing command execution as root. The vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An unauthenticated or low-privileged attacker can inject OS commands through the installer interface to gain root-level code execution on HyperFlex HX systems, enabling full infrastructure compromise.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-035EPSS 0.99928 (verify live)6CVSS 9.83CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4Exploit Weaponized · public exploit · Metasploit module · nuclei template12
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
696 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99928 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Cisco, HyperFlex HX. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-78 OS Command Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 181 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module, nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft malicious input to the HyperFlex HX Installer that bypasses validation checks.
Business
Attacker gains unauthorized root access to virtualized infrastructure components.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute arbitrary system commands with root privileges on the affected device.
Business
Critical systems become fully compromised, enabling data theft, lateral movement, or destruction.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I establish persistence and pivot to connected hyperconverged infrastructure.
Business
Enterprise compute, storage, and networking layers are at risk of coordinated compromise.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05