CVE-2021-21441
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 · uneditedThere is a XSS vulnerability in the ticket overview screens. It's possible to collect various information by having an e-mail shown in the overview screen. Attack can be performed by sending specially crafted e-mail to the system and it doesn't require any user intraction. This issue affects: OTRS AG ((OTRS)) Community Edition 6.0.x version 6.0.1 and later versions. OTRS AG OTRS 7.0.x version 7.0.26 and prior versions.
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 confidenceA stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in OTRS ticket overview screens where specially crafted email content is rendered without proper sanitization. When malicious emails are displayed in the overview, the XSS executes automatically without user interaction, allowing attackers to collect sensitive information from the displayed data.
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>= 6.0.1>= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.26CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 OTRS installation and versionLocate the OTRS installation directory and check the version file or run the version command specific to your OTRS installation. Common locations include /opt/otrs or checking via the OTRS admin panel.Affected if The installed version is OTRS 6.0.1 or higher, or OTRS 7.0.0 through 7.0.26. Versions outside these ranges are not affected.
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Verify ticket overview module is in useConfirm that the OTRS ticket overview screens are accessible and actively used in your environment. This feature is part of the standard OTRS agent interface.Affected if The ticket overview module is enabled and users can view tickets through the overview screens.
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Check for incoming email processingDetermine if your OTRS system is configured to receive and process incoming emails that create or update tickets. Review the PostMaster filter configurations and email account settings.Affected if The system processes incoming emails and creates tickets from email content - this is the attack vector for the stored XSS.
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Inspect ticket content for suspicious patternsReview tickets in the system, particularly those created from email input, for unusual script tags, JavaScript event handlers, or encoded payloads in the email subject, body, or headers that may have been injected.Affected if Malicious email content containing unsanitized script tags or JavaScript is present in any ticket visible through the overview screens.
Your environment is affected if you are running OTRS version 6.0.1 or higher through 7.0.26, the ticket overview feature is accessible, and your system processes incoming emails that could contain malicious crafted content displayed without sanitization.
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 dataSanitize email content before rendering in ticket overview screens, or apply vendor patches from OTRS to address this vulnerability in affected versions.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21441 — 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-2021-21441 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