IndicoApplication · Cern

CVE-2021-30185

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-04-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.3.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
CERN Indico before 2.3.4 can use an attacker-supplied Host header in a password reset link.

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

CERN Indico before 2.3.4 is vulnerable to Host Header Injection in its password reset functionality. An attacker can supply a malicious Host header value when requesting a password reset, causing the generated password reset link to point to an attacker-controlled domain. This allows the attacker to intercept password reset tokens by phishing users with legitimate-looking but attacker-hosted reset URLs.

MitigationUpgrade to CERN Indico version 2.3.4 or later which implements proper Host header validation. As a temporary workaround, configure the web server to reject unexpected Host headers and ensure the application only generates reset links using a trusted, validated hostname.

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
IndicoApplication
Affected:< 2.3.4

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
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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. Determine installed Indico version
    Check the Indico version by examining the version file, running 'indico --version', or viewing the version displayed in the administration interface
    Affected if The version displayed is below 2.3.4
  2. Confirm password reset is accessible
    Verify that the password reset functionality is available and functional in your Indico installation by accessing the reset request page
    Affected if The password reset feature is enabled and operational (the vulnerability exists in this feature by default)
  3. Review Host header handling
    Inspect your web server configuration (Apache, Nginx, etc.) to see if there are any restrictions on acceptable Host header values, or check if Indico has any Host validation configured
    Affected if No explicit Host header validation is configured, meaning the application may accept arbitrary Host header values

You are affected if your Indico installation is version 2.3.4 or lower and the password reset functionality is accessible without Host header validation in place.

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 2.3.4 or later
Fixed in 2.3.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to CERN Indico version 2.3.4 or later which implements proper Host header validation. As a temporary workaround, configure the web server to reject unexpected Host headers and ensure the application only generates reset links using a trusted, validated hostname.

Fix this in Indico Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2021-30185 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