CVE-2017-4976
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 ESRS Policy Manager prior to 6.8 contains an undocumented account (OpenDS admin) with a default password. A remote attacker with the knowledge of the default password may login to the system and gain administrator privileges to the local LDAP directory server.
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 ESRS Policy Manager versions prior to 6.8 contain an undocumented OpenDS admin account with a default password. A remote attacker with knowledge of this default password can authenticate to the system and gain administrator privileges to the local LDAP directory server.
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<= 6.7CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 if EMC ESRS Policy Manager is installedCheck for the ESRS Policy Manager installation directory (commonly under C:\Program Files\EMC\ or /opt/emc/ on Linux) or look for a running service named 'ESRS Policy Manager' or similar in system services.Affected if The software is not found on the system, the user is not affected.
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Determine the installed version of ESRS Policy ManagerLocate the version information in the installation directory, typically in a version.txt, about.ini, or in the application itself under Help > About. Compare the version number to the affected range: 6.7 or lower.Affected if The installed version is 6.7 or lower, the system is potentially affected by this vulnerability.
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Verify if the OpenDS LDAP service is runningCheck for the OpenDS or equivalent LDAP directory service running as part of ESRS Policy Manager. On Windows, use Services.msc or tasklist command; on Linux, check running processes for opends or ldap-related services.Affected if The OpenDS LDAP service is not present or not running, the specific flaw may not be exploitable.
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Inspect the OpenDS admin account configurationAccess the OpenDS LDAP directory configuration (typically found in the ESRS Policy Manager installation under an OpenDS or ldap configuration subdirectory). Look for admin account entries. The undocumented account would be an additional admin-level user beyond the documented administrative accounts.Affected if An undocumented admin account exists in the OpenDS directory with credentials that appear to be default or unchanged, the system is affected.
The system is affected if EMC ESRS Policy Manager version 6.7 or lower is installed with the OpenDS LDAP service enabled and an undocumented admin account with default credentials is present.
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.
dbcve · scopedChange the default password for the OpenDS admin account immediately and upgrade to version 6.8 or later to eliminate the undocumented account vulnerability.
ESRS Policy Manager 6.8
- Download ESRS Policy Manager version 6.8 or later from the official Dell EMC support portal
- Review the upgrade guide and release notes for version 6.8
- Perform a full backup of the current ESRS Policy Manager configuration and database
- Schedule a maintenance window for the upgrade process
- Stop the ESRS Policy Manager service before upgrading
- Install version 6.8 following the documented upgrade procedure
- After upgrade, verify the OpenDS admin account credentials have been changed from default
- Restart the ESRS Policy Manager service
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-4976 — 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-2017-4976 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data