CVE-2021-20490
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 · uneditedIBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.0 through 10.1.8 could allow a local user to cause a denial of service due to insecure file permission settings. IBM X-Force ID: 197791.
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 · moderate confidenceIBM Spectrum Protect Plus versions 10.1.0 through 10.1.8 contain insecure file permission settings that allow a local unprivileged user to modify or overwrite critical application files, potentially causing denial of service through file corruption or disruption of the backup and recovery services.
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>= 10.1.0, <= 10.1.8CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 the installed IBM Spectrum Protect Plus versionRun the command 'omniadmin -version' or check the product version through the administrative console under About or System InformationAffected if The installed version is 10.1.0 through 10.1.8 inclusive
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Locate the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus installation directoryCommon default locations include /opt/ibm/spectrumprotectplus or /opt/Tivoli/tsm; check the file system for the installation path using 'find / -name "spectrumprotectplus" -type d 2>/dev/null'Affected if The installation directory exists and contains application files
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Check critical application files for overly permissive write accessUse 'ls -la' on key executables and configuration directories within the installation path; look for permissions showing 'w' for others/group (such as -rwxr-xrwx or -rwxrwxrwx)Affected if Any critical binary, script, or configuration file in the installation directory is world-writable or group-writable
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Verify ownership of application binaries and scriptsRun 'ls -ln' on executables in the installation directory and confirm they are not owned by an unprivileged user accountAffected if Application binaries or scripts are owned by a non-admin user account or have both write and execute permissions for others
The environment is affected if IBM Spectrum Protect Plus version 10.1.0 through 10.1.8 is installed AND critical application files or directories have permissive access controls allowing modification by unprivileged local users.
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 dataApply IBM's security patch for CVE-2021-20490 to correct the file permission settings to secure values, following least-privilege access controls on affected files and directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-20490 — 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-2021-20490 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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