CVE-2021-21518
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 · uneditedDell SupportAssist Client for Consumer PCs versions 3.7.x, 3.6.x, 3.4.x, 3.3.x, Dell SupportAssist Client for Business PCs versions 2.0.x, 2.1.x, 2.2.x, and Dell SupportAssist Client ProManage 1.x contain a DLL injection vulnerability in the Costura Fody plugin. A local user with low privileges could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to the execution of arbitrary executable on the operating system with SYSTEM privileges.
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 confidenceDell SupportAssist Client contains a DLL injection vulnerability in the Costura Fody plugin, which is a .NET assembly merging tool. A local low-privilege attacker can exploit this to inject a malicious DLL that gets loaded by the application, executing arbitrary code with SYSTEM-level privileges.
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= 1.0= 2.0.0= 2.1.0= 2.2.0= 3.3.3= 3.4.0= 3.6.0= 3.7.0CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Locate Dell SupportAssist installationSearch program directories (C:\Program Files\Dell, C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell) or query the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for entries containing 'SupportAssist'Affected if Dell SupportAssist is found installed on the system
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Identify installed versionRead the version value from the registry uninstall key found above, or locate a version.txt or similar version file in the SupportAssist installation folderAffected if A version number is returned from the installation
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Compare against affected versionsMatch the installed version exactly against the following vulnerable versions: 1.0 (Promanage), 2.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.2.0 (Business PCs), 3.3.3, 3.4.0, 3.6.0, 3.7.0 (Home PCs)Affected if The installed version matches any of these exact versions: 1.0, 2.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.2.0, 3.3.3, 3.4.0, 3.6.0, or 3.7.0
The system is affected if Dell SupportAssist is installed AND its version exactly matches one of the vulnerable versions listed in the affected products.
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 vendor-provided patches or updates from Dell for the affected SupportAssist versions, as the vulnerability resides in the Costura Fody plugin used during application build.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21518 — 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-2021-21518 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