A vulnerability in the Protection Against Distributed Denial of Service Attacks feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct denial of service (DoS) attacks to or through the affected device. This vulnerability is due to incorrect programming of the half-opened connections limit, TCP SYN flood limit, or TCP SYN cookie features when the features are configured in vulnerable releases of Cisco IOS XE Software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by attempting to flood traffic to or through the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to initiate a DoS attack to or through an affected device.
This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and limited availability for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from cisco organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
Reported in 2021, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.
2021-09-23T03:15:16.107
2026-06-17T03:56:22.270
Modified
CVSSv3.1: 5.8 (MEDIUM)
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
10.0
2.9
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For cisco's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.