Background exploitation KEV catalog

CVE-2023-1389

TP-Link Archer AX-21 Command Injection Vulnerability

CheckOps priority index

8.3/10 Patch within 24 h

Severity8.8

Probability10.0

Exploitation3/5

Severity = CVSS. Probability = EPSS (FIRST). Exploitation = public signals: KEV, EUVD, ransomware, EPSS above 10 %, no account required.

EPSS · today 100.00% higher than 99.99% of CVEs

CVSS 3.1 8.8 AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:

Exploited for 1,282 days 01 May 2023

CISA due date 22 May 2023 for US federal agencies

Exploitation probability EPSS · FIRST

EPSS probability (%)Percentile among all CVEs

Exploitation signals 3 / 5

KEV catalog (CISA)01 May 2023
Exploited in EUVD (ENISA)01 May 2023
Used by ransomwareno
EPSS above 10 %100.00%
No account, over the networkno

What to do

Fix

Apply the vendor’s fix as soon as it is available.

CISA guidance: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Meanwhile

Take the service off the internet or restrict access to it, watch the logs and look for signs of compromise.

Manufacturers (CRA)

Exploited vulnerability in your product: early warning to ENISA within 24 h, then notification within 72 h (Article 14 of the Cyber Resilience Act). The CRA explained

Description ENISA EUVD

TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800) firmware versions before 1.1.4 Build 20230219 contained a command injection vulnerability in the country form of the /cgi-bin/luci;stok=/locale endpoint on the web management interface. Specifically, the country parameter of the write operation was not sanitized before being used in a call to popen(), allowing an unauthenticated attacker to inject commands, which would be run as root, with a simple POST request.

Affected products

TP-Link Archer AX21 (AX1800)Archer AX21

Affected versions

All versions prior to version 1.14 Build 20230219

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-77

Open source packages OSV

Affected libraries according to OSV, with fixed versions.

Timeline

15 Mar 2023
Published
01 May 2023
Exploitation reported (ENISA)
01 May 2023
Added to the KEV catalog
22 May 2023
CISA remediation due date
26 Sept 2026
EPSS peak: 100.00%

References

Other exploited vulnerabilities from the same vendor

CVE-2025-9377TP-Link Archer C7(EU) and TL-WR841N/ND(MS) OS Command Injection Vulnerability
6.5 · Background exploitation
CVE-2023-50224TP-Link TL-WR841N Authentication Bypass by Spoofing Vulnerability
5.0 · Background exploitation
CVE-2020-24363TP-link TL-WA855RE Missing Authentication for Critical Function Vulnerability
6.0 · Background exploitation
CVE-2023-33538TP-Link Multiple Routers Command Injection Vulnerability
6.6 · Background exploitation
CVE-2015-3035TP-Link Multiple Archer Devices Directory Traversal Vulnerability
7.9 · Background exploitation