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Emc Powerscale OnefsOperating system · Dell

CVE-2021-21502

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-02-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Dell PowerScale OneFS versions 8.1.0 – 9.1.0 contain a "use of SSH key past account expiration" vulnerability. A user on the network with the ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH RBAC privilege that has an expired account may potentially exploit this vulnerability, giving them access to the same things they had before account expiration. This may by a high privileged account and hence Dell recommends customers upgrade at the earliest opportunity.

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 confidence

Dell PowerScale OneFS versions 8.1.0 through 9.1.0 fail to properly validate account expiration for SSH key-based authentication. Users with the ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH RBAC privilege whose accounts have expired can continue to authenticate via SSH keys and retain their previous access levels, including potentially high-privileged access.

MitigationDell recommends upgrading to a patched version of PowerScale OneFS at the earliest opportunity to remediate this authorization bypass vulnerability.

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
Emc Powerscale OnefsOperating system
Affected:= 8.1.0= 8.1.1= 8.1.2= 8.2.0= 8.2.1= 8.2.2= 9.0.0= 9.1.0

CVSS 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:3.1/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify PowerScale OneFS version
    Run 'isi version' or check the OneFS web interface dashboard for the installed version number
    Affected if The installed version is 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.2.0, 8.1.1, 8.2.2, 9.0.0, or 9.1.0 (versions 8.1.0 through 9.1.0)
  2. Verify SSH key authentication is configured
    Check for authorized SSH keys in /root/.ssh/ or /ifs/home/<username>/.ssh/ directories, or review SSH settings in the OneFS web interface under Access > SSH
    Affected if SSH key-based authentication is enabled for any user with ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH privilege
  3. Identify users with ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH privilege
    Run 'isi auth roles view <role>' for roles containing ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH, or use 'isi auth users list' and cross-reference with 'isi auth privileges' to find users with this specific privilege
    Affected if Any user accounts possess the ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSSH privilege
  4. Check for expired accounts among privileged users
    Run 'isi auth users view <username>' for each user with ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH privilege and check the account expiration date field (account_expires attribute)
    Affected if Any user with ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH has an expired account (account_expires date is in the past) but can still authenticate via SSH keys

A user is affected if running OneFS version 8.1.0-9.1.0, SSH key authentication is enabled, and a user with ISI_PRIV_AUTH_SSH privilege has an expired account that can still authenticate via SSH keys.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Dell recommends upgrading to a patched version of PowerScale OneFS at the earliest opportunity to remediate this authorization bypass vulnerability.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

OneFS 9.1.0 or later (latest stable release)

  1. 1. Identify the current PowerScale OneFS version running on the cluster using 'isi version' or the OneFS web UI
  2. 2. Schedule a maintenance window for the upgrade process
  3. 3. Back up the cluster configuration and verify data integrity before proceeding
  4. 4. Download the latest OneFS version (9.1.0 or later) from Dell Support website at support.dell.com
  5. 5. Follow Dell PowerScale OneFS upgrade documentation to apply the upgrade: https://www.dell.com/manuals
  6. 6. After upgrade, verify that the OneFS version has been updated successfully
  7. 7. Confirm that expired accounts with SSH keys can no longer authenticate
Caveat Review Dell upgrade guide for any prerequisites, downtime requirements, and ensure cluster compatibility before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Emc Powerscale Onefs Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,380
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-21502 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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