CVE-2021-21551

Exploitation

Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-31. Federal remediation due 2022-04-21.

SSVC decision

• ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
• AutomatablenoAt least one step from reconnaissance to exploitation cannot be reliably automated.
• Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.

CISA publishes the decision points, not a final SSVC decision. The decision also depends on mission and well-being impact, which is a property of your deployment rather than of the vulnerability.

EPSS probability

79.25% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.

EPSS percentile

Ranks above 99.6% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.

NVD base score

7.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.

NVD CVSS vector

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

NVD analysis status

Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.

Red Hat severity

No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.

Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.

Published

2021-05-04 15:15Z5 YR AGO

Last updated

2025-10-21 23:25Z10 MO AGO

Reserved

2021-01-04

Assigning CNA

dell

Record state

PUBLISHED

Severity

High (CVSS 8.8)

CNA CVSS vector

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

Weaknesses

• CWE-782Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access ControlVariant

Data version

5.1

Document digest

4d88cd98d090147f613ef289d7461918c769a31dd032e59c27e309a514d032d8

• www.dell.comhttps://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerabilityx_refsource_MISC
• packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.htmlx_refsource_MISC
• packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.htmlx_refsource_MISC
• www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-21551government-resource