CVE-2021-40116
HighCVSS 8.6Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk69th percentile - higher than 69% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability in Snort rules in multiple Cisco products could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS). The issue is due to improper handling of Block with Reset or Interactive Block with Reset actions if a rule is configured without proper constraints. Exploitation involves sending a crafted IP packet.
Risk Assessment
Exploitation could cause traffic to be dropped, leading to network disruption and potential service unavailability.
Recommendation
Update to patched Cisco software and review Snort3 rule configurations to ensure proper constraints.
Other vulnerabilities in Snort
See all- CVE-2016-1417High
The vulnerability in Snort 2.9.7.0-WIN32 related to an untrusted search path allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and conduct DLL hijacking attacks via a malicious tcapi.dll file located in the same folder as a processed pcap file.
- CVE-2026-20043Critical
A vulnerability in Cisco Snort 3 software related to out-of-bounds writes (CWE-787). It was discovered during an internal security review and fixed in hardening releases.
- CVE-2026-76524High
The Snort 3 control channel socket implementation lacks authentication when a local user connects to the socket. An authenticated local attacker with low privileges can execute arbitrary commands as the Snort 3 process user and read or write the process memory.
- CVE-2026-76489Medium
Multiple Cisco products are affected by a vulnerability in the memory management implementation of Snort 3 that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 Detection Engine to restart, interrupting packet inspection. The issue is due to incomplete error checking when Snort 3 processes files, which could cause unreleased memory.
- CVE-2026-20356High
Cisco Snort 3 contains multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities related to uncontrolled resource consumption (CWE-400) that have been addressed in software hardening releases. Technical details of individual cases were not disclosed in the description.
- CVE-2026-20291High
Cisco's Open Source Snort 3 software engineering team conducted an internal security review, resulting in hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20291 relate to improper privilege management (CWE-269).
- CVE-2026-20236High
Cisco Snort 3 contains multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities related to incorrect calculation (CWE-682) that have been addressed in software hardening releases. Technical details of individual cases were not disclosed in the description.
- CVE-2026-20218Medium
A vulnerability in the Snort 3 VBA Decompression Engine of multiple Cisco products allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 Detection Engine to restart unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS). The flaw is due to improper range checking when decompressing user-controlled VBA data. Sending crafted VBA data can cause a stack overflow and DoS condition.
- CVE-2026-20197Medium
A vulnerability in the Snort 3 Teredo Detection Engine of multiple Cisco products allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 Detection Engine to restart, interrupting packet inspection. The flaw is due to incomplete error checking when parsing Teredo packets. Sending a crafted Teredo packet to a targeted device can cause an unexpected restart and DoS condition.
- CVE-2026-20179Medium
A vulnerability in the Snort 3 Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Detection Engine of multiple Cisco products allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 Detection Engine to restart, interrupting packet inspection. The flaw is due to incomplete error checking when parsing GRE packets. Sending a crafted GRE packet to a targeted device can cause an unexpected restart and DoS condition.
Original NVD description (English source)
Multiple Cisco products are affected by a vulnerability in Snort rules that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device.The vulnerability is due to improper handling of the Block with Reset or Interactive Block with Reset actions if a rule is configured without proper constraints. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted IP packet to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause through traffic to be dropped. Note: Only products with Snort3 configured and either a rule with Block with Reset or Interactive Block with Reset actions configured are vulnerable. Products configured with Snort2 are not vulnerable.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

