Netiq Advanced AuthenticationApplication · Microfocus

CVE-2021-22497

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-04-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.3 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Advanced Authentication versions prior to 6.3 SP4 have a potential broken authentication due to improper session management issue.

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

Advanced Authentication versions before 6.3 SP4 contain a broken authentication vulnerability caused by improper session management, allowing attackers to potentially hijack user sessions or bypass authentication controls.

MitigationUpgrade Advanced Authentication to version 6.3 SP4 or later to remediate the session management 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
Netiq Advanced AuthenticationApplication
Affected:< 6.3= 6.3

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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. Confirm Netiq Advanced Authentication is installed
    Locate the product in your system's installed programs or services list, looking for 'Netiq Advanced Authentication' or 'Microfocus Netiq Advanced Authentication'
    Affected if The product is found installed on the system
  2. Determine the installed version
    Access the product's administrative interface, registry entries, or version information file to retrieve the exact version number of Advanced Authentication
    Affected if The version is 6.3 or any version below 6.3 (e.g., 6.2.x, 6.1.x, etc.)
  3. Identify if the session management component is active
    Check whether the Advanced Authentication service is running and serving authentication sessions - inspect the authentication service status or active session configurations
    Affected if The service is active and handling user authentication sessions, which is the default state for a deployed authentication server
  4. Review session configuration for the vulnerability pattern
    Inspect the Advanced Authentication session management settings for improper session token handling, checking for predictable session IDs or lack of proper session invalidation on logout
    Affected if Session tokens are not properly randomized or session state is not invalidated upon logout, indicating the broken session management is present

You are affected if Netiq Advanced Authentication version 6.3 or any version below 6.3 is installed and the authentication service is active, as the improper session management vulnerability exists in these versions.

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.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.3 or later
Fixed in 6.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Advanced Authentication to version 6.3 SP4 or later to remediate the session management vulnerability.

Fix this in Netiq Advanced Authentication Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-22497 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-22497 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • 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