What is CVE-2023-1389?

CVE-2023-1389 is a high-severity vulnerability in TP-Link Archer Ax21, classified under Command Injection. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2023-03-15.

How severe is CVE-2023-1389?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2023-1389 known to be exploited?

Yes. CVE-2023-1389 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-01), indicating it is being actively exploited. 17 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.

RCE in TP-Link Archer Ax21

CVE-2023-1389

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.

Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)

Published 2023-03-15 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 1.000 (100.0th percentile), scored 2026-07-02.

Very high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — among the top 0.1% most-likely-to-be-exploited CVEs. 100th percentile — 100.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

The 30-day trend appears once there are two daily scores.

Affected products

TP-Link Archer Ax21
TP-Link Archer Ax21 Firmware
TP-Link Archer Ax21 (Ax1800) — versions All versions prior to version 1.14 Build 20230219

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-77 — Command Injection

CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

This CVE is on the CISA KEV catalog, added on 2023-05-01. CISA KEV inclusion means CISA has confirmed in-the-wild exploitation; US federal agencies are required to remediate within a published due date.

BOD 22-01 due date: 2023-05-22.

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.tenable.com/security/research/tra-2023-11 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/174131/TP-Link-Archer-AX21-Command-Injection.html (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 (US Government Resource)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-1389?: CVE-2023-1389 is a high-severity vulnerability in TP-Link Archer Ax21, classified under Command Injection. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2023-03-15.
How severe is CVE-2023-1389?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-1389 known to be exploited?: Yes. CVE-2023-1389 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-01), indicating it is being actively exploited. 17 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.