CVE-2021-21563
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 EMC PowerScale OneFS versions 8.1.2-9.1.0.x contain an Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions in its auditing component.This can lead to an authenticated user with low-privileges to trigger a denial of service event.
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 EMC PowerScale OneFS versions 8.1.2-9.1.0.x contain an improper check for unusual or exceptional conditions vulnerability in the auditing component. An authenticated user with low-privilege access can exploit this improper error handling to trigger a denial of service condition, likely by causing the auditing service to fail or become unresponsive.
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= 8.1.3= 8.2.1= 8.2.2= 9.0.0.0= 9.1.0.0CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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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Confirm PowerScale OneFS is deployedIdentify if Dell EMC PowerScale OneFS storage system is in use in your environment. This is a scale-out NAS storage platform, not a general Windows/Linux server.Affected if PowerScale OneFS is not the product in use, this CVE does not apply.
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Check OneFS versionRun 'isi version' or access the web UI and check the OneFS version displayed. Compare against affected versions: 8.1.3, 8.2.1, 8.2.2, 9.0.0.0, 9.1.0.0, and any 8.1.2-9.1.0.x versions in between.Affected if The installed version falls within 8.1.2 through 9.1.0.x, the system is potentially affected.
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Verify auditing module statusCheck if auditing is enabled on the system by running 'isi audit' commands or reviewing audit settings in the OneFS web UI under Access > Auditing.Affected if Auditing is enabled; the vulnerability exists in the auditing component, so this is a prerequisite for exploitation.
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Check auditing service healthRun 'isi services' or review audit service status via 'isi audit status' to verify the auditing daemon is running and responsive.Affected if Auditing service is unresponsive, crashed repeatedly, or shows error conditions, this may indicate exploitation of this vulnerability.
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Review audit logs for anomaliesExamine OneFS audit logs (/var/log/audit/ or via 'isi audit logs') for patterns of low-privilege user actions coinciding with auditing service failures or restarts.Affected if Audit logs show service failures following low-privilege user activity, exploitation may have occurred.
The environment is affected if PowerScale OneFS is running with a version between 8.1.2 and 9.1.0.x and the auditing module is enabled, allowing an authenticated low-privilege user to trigger auditing service failures.
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 the vendor-supplied patch for PowerScale OneFS to address the improper error handling in the auditing component. If no patch is immediately available, consider network segmentation and monitoring to limit exposure to authenticated low-privilege users.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21563 — 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-2021-21563 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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