CVE-2021-31220
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 · uneditedSES Evolution before 2.1.0 allows modifying security policies by leveraging access of a user having read-only access to security policies.
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 confidenceSES Evolution before version 2.1.0 contains a broken access control vulnerability where users granted read-only permissions to security policies can modify those policies, effectively bypassing the intended authorization model and escalating their privileges beyond what their role should permit.
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>= 2.0.0, <= 2.0.2CVSS 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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed SES Evolution versionUse the product's built-in version check feature, typically found in the About or System Information section of the management console, or run the command 'sesecctl --version' if available from the installation directoryAffected if The version displayed is 2.0.0, 2.0.1, or 2.0.2
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Verify version is within affected rangeCompare your installed version number against the known vulnerable range: 2.0.0 through 2.0.2 inclusiveAffected if Your installed version falls within 2.0.0 <= version <= 2.0.2
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Confirm read-only user permissions existCheck if any user accounts or service accounts in the SES Evolution administration console are assigned read-only roles for security policiesAffected if Read-only user accounts exist in the system
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Test policy modification access for read-only usersLog in with a read-only user account and attempt to create, modify, or delete a security policy through the management interface or APIAffected if A read-only user can successfully modify security policies, confirming the authorization bypass is present
You are affected if SES Evolution version 2.0.0 through 2.0.2 is installed and read-only users can modify security policies, indicating the broken access control vulnerability is present.
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.
From vendor dataUpgrade SES Evolution to version 2.1.0 or later to remediate this authorization bypass. Verify that read-only users can no longer modify security policies after the upgrade.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-31220 — 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-2021-31220 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
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