CVE-2021-21545
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 Peripheral Manager 1.3.1 or greater contains remediation for a local privilege escalation vulnerability that could be potentially exploited to gain arbitrary code execution on the system with privileges of the system 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 confidenceDell Peripheral Manager versions prior to 1.3.1 contained a local privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow an authenticated local attacker to execute arbitrary code with system-level privileges. The vulnerability was remediated in version 1.3.1 by addressing the underlying insecure configuration or code execution path.
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< 1.3.1CVSS 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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Verify Dell Peripheral Manager is installedCheck the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for an entry named 'Dell Peripheral Manager' or look for the application in Add/Remove Programs. Alternatively, search for 'Dell Peripheral Manager' or 'DPM' in the Program Files directories.Affected if The application is found on the system, proceed to version check.
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Determine the installed versionOpen the Windows Registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{Dell Peripheral Manager GUID} and read the 'DisplayVersion' value. Alternatively, right-click the executable file (typically named DellPeripheralManager.exe or similar) in the installation folder, select Properties, and view the Details tab for the Product Version.Affected if A version number is retrieved, proceed to compare against affected ranges.
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Compare version against the affected rangeCompare the installed version number to 1.3.1. Versions prior to 1.3.1 (such as 1.3.0, 1.2.x, 1.1.x, 1.0.x) are affected. Version 1.3.1 and later are not affected.Affected if The installed version is less than 1.3.1 (for example, 1.2.0), the system is vulnerable.
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Check if the Dell Peripheral Manager service is runningOpen Services (services.msc) and look for a service related to Dell Peripheral Manager, or run 'sc query' from Command Prompt to enumerate running services. Also check Task Manager for any running Dell Peripheral Manager processes.Affected if The service or associated processes are actively running on the system, the privilege escalation vector is present.
The system is affected if Dell Peripheral Manager is installed with a version lower than 1.3.1 and the service or associated processes are running, allowing an authenticated local attacker to potentially escalate privileges.
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 data1.3.1
Upgrade Dell Peripheral Manager to version 1.3.1 or later. Since this is a local privilege escalation, ensure appropriate access controls and least-privilege principles are applied to limit local user permissions.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21545 — 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-2021-21545 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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