CVE-2021-21083
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 · uneditedAEM's Cloud Service offering, as well as versions 6.5.7.0 (and below), 6.4.8.3 (and below) and 6.3.3.8 (and below) are affected by an Improper Access Control vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to cause an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user.
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 confidenceThis is an Improper Access Control vulnerability in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) affecting both Cloud Service and on-premise versions 6.5.7.0 and below, 6.4.8.3 and below, and 6.3.3.8 and below. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability to cause an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user, likely by manipulating access controls to trigger resource exhaustion or application failure.
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<= 6.3.3.8>= 6.4.0.0, < 6.4.8.4>= 6.5.0.0, < 6.5.8.0all versionsCVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 AEM versionAccess the AEM welcome page or check the product.info endpoint (e.g., /system/console/productinfo) to retrieve the exact version number installed.Affected if The version is 6.5.7.0 or below, 6.4.8.3 or below, 6.3.3.8 or below, or if it is any version of AEM Cloud Service.
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Confirm deployment typeDetermine whether the AEM instance is on-premise or AEM Cloud Service by checking the deployment model or Cloud Service configuration.Affected if The instance is AEM Cloud Service (all versions affected) or on-premise with a version in the affected ranges.
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Check for access control manipulation indicatorsReview AEM ACL (Access Control List) configurations and user/group permissions in the CRX Explorer (/crx/explorer) or through the User Management console for unexpected modifications.Affected if Unexpected or unauthorized changes to ACLs or permission structures are found that could enable unauthorized access or resource exhaustion.
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Monitor for denial-of-service symptomsCheck AEM request logs, error logs, and health monitor for unusual patterns such as excessive resource consumption, failed requests, or application instability that may indicate exploitation.Affected if Unusual patterns of request failures, resource exhaustion, or application crashes are observed without other explained cause.
You are affected if you are running AEM Cloud Service of any version, or on-premise AEM versions 6.5.7.0 and below, 6.4.8.3 and below, or 6.3.3.8 and below, and you observe access control anomalies or DoS symptoms.
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 data6.4.8.46.5.8.0
Apply Adobe's security patch or upgrade to the fixed versions (6.5.8.0, 6.4.8.4, 6.3.3.9 or later for on-premise; Cloud Service should receive automatic updates). After patching, verify the DoS condition is no longer exploitable and conduct regression testing.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21083 — 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-2021-21083 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
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