Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 17 Nov 2021.
Operation Bridge ReporterApplication · Microfocus

CVE-2021-22502

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-02-08
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
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit 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
Remote Code execution vulnerability in Micro Focus Operation Bridge Reporter (OBR) product, affecting version 10.40. The vulnerability could be exploited to allow Remote Code Execution on the OBR server.

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 confidence

A Remote Code Execution vulnerability exists in Micro Focus Operation Bridge Reporter (OBR) version 10.40 that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the OBR server. The critical severity (CVSS 9.8) indicates the vulnerability is exploitable remotely with low complexity and without authentication.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch for OBR 10.40 when available; until then, restrict network access to the OBR management interfaces and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

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
Operation Bridge ReporterApplication
Affected:= 10.40

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. Locate OBR installation
    Check for OBR installation directories (typically under /opt/microfocus/obr or C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\OBR) or query for running processes named 'obr' or 'OperationBridgeReporter'
    Affected if OBR software is installed on the system
  2. Identify installed OBR version
    Look for version information in the OBR installation directory, or check the product's web interface login page for version display, or query the OBR service via its management API if accessible
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 10.40
  3. Verify OBR service is running and accessible
    Check if the OBR web interface (typically on ports 8080, 8443, or 80/443) is responding. Use netstat or ss to check for listening OBR-related ports, or attempt a curl/http request to the OBR endpoint
    Affected if The OBR service is running and network-accessible (even on localhost)
  4. Confirm no compensating controls are in place
    Review network firewall rules, access control lists, or reverse proxy configurations that may restrict access to OBR management ports
    Affected if The OBR management interface is exposed to network without authentication barriers (the vulnerability is exploitable without credentials)

If Micro Focus Operation Bridge Reporter version 10.40 is installed and its management interface is network-accessible, the system is affected by CVE-2021-22502 and vulnerable to unauthenticated remote code execution.

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

Apply the vendor-supplied patch for OBR 10.40 when available; until then, restrict network access to the OBR management interfaces and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

Fix this in Operation Bridge Reporter Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-22502 — 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-2021-22502 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