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ExploitedIn CISA KEV

CVE-2021-21551

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2022-03-31 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2021-05-04
  • WeaknessCWE-782

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2021-05-0416:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2021-05-21Exploit-DB entryExploit-DB
  3. 2022-03-31Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  4. 2022-03-31Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  5. 2022-03-31Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  6. 2025-02-0712:41SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 09:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-21551?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-21551?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Dell dbutilversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.3≤ 2.3no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As dell, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • Dell dbutilother versions: not affected
    Affected
    • = 2.3no fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2023-10-05

Fix

  1. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2022-04-21

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
EDB-49893
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
12 repositories, unverifiedwaldo-irc/CVE-2021-21551ch3rn0byl/CVE-2021-21551arnaudluti/PS-CVE-2021-21551mathisvickie/CVE-2021-21551mzakocs/CVE-2021-21551-POC
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
1 moduleexploit/windows/local/cve_2021_21551_dbutil_memmoverank: goodModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2022-03-31
Patch Due Date
2022-04-21
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2021-05-04
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-pp2j-9hqv-7x55

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-21551?

Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.

Is CVE-2021-21551 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2021-21551 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2022-04-21.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-21551?

CVE-2021-21551 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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