CVE-2021-31822
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 · uneditedWhen Octopus Tentacle is installed on a Linux operating system, the systemd service file permissions are misconfigured. This could lead to a local unprivileged user modifying the contents of the systemd service file to gain privileged access.
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 confidenceOctopus Tentacle deploys a systemd service file on Linux systems with overly permissive ownership/permissions, allowing any local user to modify the service configuration. By injecting malicious commands into the service file (e.g., modifying ExecStart directives), an unprivileged user can execute arbitrary code with root privileges when the service restarts.
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>= 3.15.4, < 6.1.1116CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Confirm Octopus Tentacle is installed and get versionRun: dpkg -l octopus-tentacle or rpm -qi octopus-tentacle, or check /opt/octopus/tentacle/Tentacle.exe --versionAffected if Installed version is >= 3.15.4 and < 6.1.1116
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Locate the Tentacle systemd service fileRun: systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i tentacle or ls /etc/systemd/system/*tentacle*Affected if A systemd service file for Octopus Tentacle exists on the system
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Check ownership of the service fileRun: ls -la /etc/systemd/system/$(systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i tentacle | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)Affected if Owner is not root (not root:root)
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Check permissions of the service fileRun: stat -c '%a' /etc/systemd/system/<tentacle-service-name>Affected if Permissions are greater than 644 (e.g., 644, 664, or 666 allows group/other write)
If Octopus Tentacle version is within the affected range AND the systemd service file is owned by non-root OR has permissions allowing write access to non-root users (group/other write bits set), the system is vulnerable to local privilege escalation.
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 · scoped6.1.1116
Correct the systemd service file ownership to root:root and permissions to 644 or stricter (read-only for non-root users) to prevent unauthorized modification. Verify the service restarts properly after applying the fix.
6.1.1116 or later
- Upgrade Octopus Tentacle to version 6.1.1116 or later to receive the corrected systemd service file permissions
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-31822 — 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-2021-31822 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
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