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Event StreamsApplication · Ibm

CVE-2021-29792

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-07-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
IBM Event Streams 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 could allow a user the CA private key to create their own certificates and deploy them in the cluster and gain privileges of another user. IBM X-Force ID: 203450.

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

IBM Event Streams stores the CA (Certificate Authority) private key in a way that allows authenticated users to access it. An attacker with this key can craft their own certificates and deploy them into the cluster, allowing impersonation of other users and privilege escalation.

MitigationUpdate to a patched version of IBM Event Streams. Rotate all certificates that were potentially signed by the compromised CA and review user access logs for signs of exploitation.

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
Event StreamsApplication
Affected:= 10.0.0= 10.1.0= 10.2.0= 10.3.0

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. Identify the installed IBM Event Streams version
    Run 'kubectl get operandrequest -n <namespace>' or check the IBM Event Streams operator version in your cluster. Also check the 'es-console' or 'eventstreams' custom resource: 'kubectl get eventstreams <instance-name> -n <namespace> -o jsonpath="{.status.version}"
    Affected if The installed version is 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, or 10.3.0
  2. Locate the CA private key secret
    Find the Kubernetes secret containing the CA private key. Typically named something like 'es-ca-key' or located in the namespace where IBM Event Streams is installed. Use 'kubectl get secrets -n <namespace>' and look for secrets of type 'kubernetes.io/tls' or with 'ca' and 'key' in the name
    Affected if The CA private key secret exists and is accessible in the cluster
  3. Check RBAC permissions on the CA key secret
    Use 'kubectl auth can-i get <secret-name> --as=<user>' for various users, or review RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings that grant access to secrets in the IBM Event Streams namespace. Check if any authenticated users have get/list permissions on secrets containing 'ca' or 'key' in their name
    Affected if Non-admin users have read access to the CA private key secret
  4. Audit certificate signing activity
    Review Kubernetes audit logs or IBM Event Streams logs for unusual certificate creation, particularly CSR (Certificate Signing Request) submissions or certificate issuance events that do not correspond to known workloads
    Affected if There are certificate issuance events that were not initiated by expected cluster operators or are of unknown origin
  5. Check for unexpected certificates in the cluster
    List all certificates in the cluster: 'kubectl get certificates --all-namespaces' and review the cert-manager or IBM Certificate Manager resources. Look for certificates signed by the Event Streams CA that were created outside normal deployment processes
    Affected if Certificates exist that were not created through normal IBM Event Streams deployment workflows

You are affected if your IBM Event Streams version is 10.0.0 through 10.3.0 and the CA private key is accessible to users beyond cluster administrators.

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

Update to a patched version of IBM Event Streams. Rotate all certificates that were potentially signed by the compromised CA and review user access logs for signs of exploitation.

Fix this in Event Streams Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
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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-2021-29792 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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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