CVE-2013-3280
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedEMC RSA Authentication Agent 7.1.x before 7.1.2 for Web for Internet Information Services has a fail-open design, which allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via vectors that trigger an agent crash.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceEMC RSA Authentication Agent 7.1.x before 7.1.2 for Web deployed on IIS contains a fail-open design flaw. When the agent crashes due to crafted requests, it defaults to allowing unauthenticated access instead of blocking traffic, enabling remote attackers to bypass authentication entirely.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 7.1= 7.1.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed RSA Authentication Agent versionCheck the installed version of EMC RSA Authentication Agent for Web via the Windows Programs and Features control panel, the agent's management console, or by querying the installed binaries. Compare the version number to the affected range (7.1 and 7.1.1).Affected if The installed version is 7.1 or 7.1.1 (versions before 7.1.2).
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Confirm IIS deploymentVerify that the RSA Authentication Agent for Web is deployed on Internet Information Services (IIS). Check IIS Manager for RSA Web Agent modules or examine the IIS configuration for RSA-related ISAPI filters or modules.Affected if The RSA Authentication Agent for Web is running on IIS and the vulnerable version (7.1/7.1.1) is installed.
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Verify Web Agent module is enabledInspect the IIS configuration (applicationHost.config or site-level web.config) to confirm the RSA Web Agent authentication module is loaded and active for the protected application pool or website.Affected if The RSA Web Agent module is enabled and the server runs a vulnerable version.
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Check agent status and crash behaviorMonitor the RSA Authentication Agent service status and review IIS/Windows event logs for any crash events or authentication failures that may indicate the fail-open condition has been triggered.Affected if The agent has crashed or exhibited fail-open behavior on a vulnerable version, allowing unauthenticated access.
The environment is affected if EMC RSA Authentication Agent for Web version 7.1 or 7.1.1 is installed and deployed on IIS with the Web authentication module enabled.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to EMC RSA Authentication Agent 7.1.2 or later, which addresses the fail-open vulnerability. Until patched, implement additional network-level access controls to detect and block crash-inducing requests.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3280 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-3280 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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