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Peoplesoft Enterprise Hcm Candidate GatewayApplication · Oracle

CVE-2021-2404

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-07-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Vulnerability in the PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway product of Oracle PeopleSoft (component: e-mail notification). The supported version that is affected is 9.2. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP to compromise PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway accessible data as well as unauthorized read access to a subset of PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.5 (Confidentiality and Integrity impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N).

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

An unauthenticated attacker with network access via HTTP can exploit the e-mail notification component of PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway version 9.2 to achieve unauthorized read, insert, update, and delete access to certain application data.

MitigationApply Oracle Critical Patch Update security patches for CVE-2021-2404. Additionally, restrict network access to PeopleSoft portals from untrusted networks and implement web application firewall rules to detect and block malicious HTTP requests targeting the notification component.

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
Peoplesoft Enterprise Hcm Candidate GatewayApplication
Affected:= 9.2

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
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

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. Identify PeopleSoft HCM Candidate Gateway installation
    Locate the PeopleSoft installation directory (PS_HOME) and check for the Candidate Gateway application. Look for directory structures containing 'candidate_gateway' or 'hc' (Human Capital) components, or check PeopleSoft Application Designer for installed applications.
    Affected if The system does not have PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway installed.
  2. Confirm exact version 9.2
    Access the PeopleSoft 'About' page (typically via the PIA web portal's About link), check the PS_VERSION table via SQL query, or inspect version files in the PS_HOME directory. The version must be exactly 9.2.
    Affected if The installed version is anything other than exactly 9.2.
  3. Verify HTTP/HTTPS web access is enabled
    Check if PeopleSoft PIA (PeopleSoft Internet Architecture) web servers are running. Verify that HTTP listeners are active on ports 80, 443, or custom ports. Confirm the Candidate Gateway portal is accessible via browser.
    Affected if HTTP/HTTPS access to the PeopleSoft portal is disabled or blocked.
  4. Confirm e-mail notification component is exposed
    Check if the e-mail notification functionality is configured and accessible. Look for notification-related servlets or endpoints in the web application configuration (web.xml) or verify the component is active in the Candidate Gateway module configuration.
    Affected if The e-mail notification component is not configured or not accessible.
  5. Assess network exposure
    Determine if the PeopleSoft portal is reachable from untrusted networks. Review firewall rules, load balancer configurations, and reverse proxy settings that control access to the Candidate Gateway HTTP endpoints.
    Affected if The portal is only accessible from trusted/internal networks and not directly exposed to untrusted network access.

The environment is affected only if Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Candidate Gateway version 9.2 is installed AND the portal is network-accessible via HTTP with the e-mail notification component exposed.

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 Oracle Critical Patch Update security patches for CVE-2021-2404. Additionally, restrict network access to PeopleSoft portals from untrusted networks and implement web application firewall rules to detect and block malicious HTTP requests targeting the notification component.

Fix this in Peoplesoft Enterprise Hcm Candidate Gateway Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
40.0 hours of engineering $7,000
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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-2021-2404 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