CVE-2021-31432
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 · uneditedThis vulnerability allows local attackers to disclose sensitive information on affected installations of Parallels Desktop 15.1.5-47309. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute high-privileged code on the target guest system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the IDE virtual device. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in a read past the end of an allocated buffer. An attacker can leverage this in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of the hypervisor. Was ZDI-CAN-13190.
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 confidenceThis is a guest-to-host escape vulnerability in Parallels Desktop's IDE virtual device. A local attacker with high-privileged code execution on the guest VM can trigger an out-of-bounds read by supplying malformed data to the IDE controller, potentially disclosing sensitive information from hypervisor memory. The flaw can be chained with other vulnerabilities to achieve arbitrary code execution in the hypervisor context.
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= 15.1.5-47309CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/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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Verify Parallels Desktop is installedCheck for the presence of Parallels Desktop application in /Applications or via command line: ls /Applications | grep -i parallelsAffected if Parallels Desktop is found installed on the system
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Determine installed Parallels Desktop versionRun: defaults read /Applications/Parallels\ Desktop.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleShortVersionString (or check About Parallels Desktop in the UI)Affected if Version returned is exactly 15.1.5 with build number 47309
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Check for IDE virtual device configuration in VMOpen Parallels Desktop, go to Virtual Machine configuration > Hardware > check for IDE controller present in the guest VM settingsAffected if An IDE controller device is configured and enabled for any guest VM
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Identify running guest VMs with IDE devicesUse prlctl list -a to list all VMs, then prlctl device list <vmname> to check for IDE device attachmentAffected if Any guest VM is running or configured with an IDE virtual device while Parallels Desktop version is 15.1.5-47309
User is affected if Parallels Desktop version 15.1.5 (build 47309) is installed AND any guest VM uses the IDE virtual device, allowing a high-privileged attacker in the guest to potentially read hypervisor memory.
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 dataUpdate Parallels Desktop to the vendor-patched version. Until patched, limit trusted access to VMs and avoid running untrusted code in guest systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-31432 — 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-2021-31432 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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