CVE-2021-27561 is a critical (CVSS 9.8) unauthenticated OS command injection flaw (CWE-78) in Yealink Device Management (DM) 3.6.0.20, which CISA also characterizes as a server-side request forgery issue. A remote attacker can send a crafted, unauthenticated HTTP request to the /sm/api/v1/firewall/zone/services URI to inject operating system commands that execute with root privileges on the DM server. Successful exploitation yields full root control of the management server, allowing an attacker to pivot into the managed VoIP/UC environment, move laterally inside the network, or enroll the host in an IoT-style botnet. The flaw affects organizations running Yealink Device Management to administer fleets of Yealink IP phones, and it is trivially exploitable over the network with no user interaction. It was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, confirming exploitation in the wild, and the recent emergence of Mirai-variant botnets targeting network devices is consistent with active mass-scanning for this class of unauthenticated injection flaw; EPSS puts the 30-day exploitation probability at roughly 83%.
What to do: Upgrade Yealink Device Management to a fixed release per Yealink's instructions (the confirmed affected version is 3.6.0.20); CISA's required action is to apply vendor updates. Until patched, restrict access to the DM web interface to trusted management networks and verify it is not internet-exposed. Check access logs for unauthenticated requests to /sm/api/v1/firewall/zone/services, which would indicate probing or exploitation.
Affected
Yealink Device Management
3.6.0.20 confirmed affected (command injection as root); other/prior versions not specified in the source data
Estimated exposure
moderatethousands (order of magnitude 1k–10k) of deployed DM servers, many internet-exposed — Yealink DM is deployed once per organization managing Yealink IP phone fleets, and Yealink is a leading SIP-phone vendor, implying thousands of management-server deployments rather than one-per-endpoint, with a substantial share exposed to…
Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.
Description
Yealink Device Management (DM) 3.6.0.20 allows command injection as root via the /sm/api/v1/firewall/zone/services URI, without authentication.
New Mirai botnet variant exploits nine vulnerabilities in SonicWall, D-Link, Netgear, and other devices, with attacks ongoing at publication.
Unit 42 observed attacks exploiting VisualDoor (SonicWall SSL-VPN), CVE-2020-25506 (D-Link DNS-320), CVE-2020-26919 (Netgear ProSAFE Plus), and other flaws, with infrastructure rotating across at least three IP addresses between February 16 and March 13, 2021. Payloads were updated hours after CVE-2021-27561 and CVE-2021-27562 (Yealink Device Management, unauthenticated root RCE) and later added CVE-2021-22502 (Micro Focus Operation Bridge Reporter) and CVE-2019-19356 (Netis WF2419). Successful exploitation invokes wget to fetch shell scripts that download Mirai binaries compiled for multiple architectures and brute-forcers, and attacks were still ongoing when reported.