CVE-2021-25140
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 · uneditedA potential security vulnerability has been identified in the HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager v1.20. The HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager is an application that is installed in a VMWare or Microsoft Hyper-V environment that is used to setup and configure an HPE Moonshot 1500 chassis. This vulnerability could be remotely exploited by an unauthenticated user to cause a directory traversal in user supplied input to the `khuploadfile.cgi` CGI ELF. The directory traversal could lead to Remote Code Execution, Denial of Service, and/or compromise system integrity. **Note:** HPE recommends that customers discontinue the use of the HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager. The HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager application is discontinued, no longer supported, is not available to download from the HPE Support Center, and no patch is available.
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 confidenceA directory traversal vulnerability exists in the khuploadfile.cgi CGI component of HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager v1.20. An unauthenticated remote attacker can manipulate user-supplied path inputs to traverse the file system, leading to arbitrary file access that can escalate to remote code execution, denial of service, or system compromise.
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= 1.20CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager is installedSearch for the software on the system: check for installation directories (commonly C:\Program Files\HPE\Moonshot or /opt/hpe/moonshot), look for service entries, or check Windows Programs and FeaturesAffected if The software is present on the system
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Confirm the installed version is 1.20Locate version information in the application directory, check registry entries on Windows (HKLM\SOFTWARE\HPE\Moonshot Provisioning Manager), or look for a version file in the installation directory. Compare the found version against the affected version = 1.20Affected if The installed version is exactly 1.20
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Locate the khuploadfile.cgi componentSearch for khuploadfile.cgi in the web server's CGI bin directory (typically in the htdocs or cgi-bin folder within the Moonshot Provisioning Manager installation)Affected if The khuploadfile.cgi file exists on the system
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Determine if the web interface is accessibleCheck if the HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager web service is running and accessible on the network. Attempt to access the CGI component via HTTP/HTTPS if the service is exposedAffected if The web interface and CGI components are accessible (the vulnerability requires the CGI to be reachable)
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Check for evidence of exploitation attemptsReview web server access logs for suspicious requests containing ../ sequences targeting khuploadfile.cgi, or look for unexpected file access patternsAffected if Log evidence shows directory traversal patterns (e.g., ../../) in requests to khuploadfile.cgi
A system is affected if HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager version 1.20 is installed and the khuploadfile.cgi CGI component is accessible on the network.
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.
dbcve · scopedHPE recommends discontinuing use and removing the HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager entirely, as no patch is available for this discontinued product. Organizations should decommission or isolate any systems running this software.
- Discontinue use of HPE Moonshot Provisioning Manager as recommended by HPE
- Decommission systems running the vulnerable Moonshot Provisioning Manager v1.20
- Evaluate alternative solutions for HPE Moonshot chassis provisioning and management
- If continued operation is absolutely required, implement network segmentation and restrict access to the management interface to trusted networks only, noting this is a mitigation not a fix
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-25140 — 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-2021-25140 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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- 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