Keystone 5Application · Keystonejs

CVE-2021-32624

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-05-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 19.3.2 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Keystone 5 is an open source CMS platform to build Node.js applications. This security advisory relates to a newly discovered capability in our query infrastructure to directly or indirectly expose the values of private fields, bypassing the configured access control. This is an access control related oracle attack in that the attack method guides an attacker during their attempt to reveal information they do not have access to. The complexity of completing the attack is limited by some length-dependent behaviors and the fidelity of the exposed information. Under some circumstances, field values or field value meta data can be determined, despite the field or list having `read` access control configured. If you use private fields or lists, you may be impacted. No patches exist at this time. There are no workarounds at this time

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

Keystone 5 CMS contains a vulnerability in its query infrastructure that allows attackers to bypass configured read access controls on private fields or lists. The flaw acts as an information disclosure oracle, enabling attackers to determine private field values or metadata through specially crafted queries despite access control settings.

MitigationNo vendor patch or workaround available. Immediate mitigation requires assessing exposure, isolating affected endpoints, and implementing compensating controls until a fix is released by the Keystone project.

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
Keystone 5Application
Affected:<= 19.3.2

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
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Keystone 5 installation
    Locate the package.json file in your project and check for '@keystonejs/keystone' or 'keystone' in dependencies
    Affected if The project depends on @keystonejs/keystone version 19.3.2 or lower
  2. Verify installed Keystone version
    Run 'npm list @keystonejs/keystone' or 'npm list keystone' to see the exact installed version
    Affected if The installed version is 19.3.2 or lower
  3. Check for private field access control configuration
    Examine your Keystone list and field configuration files for access control definitions, specifically 'read' permissions on fields marked as 'access: { read: false }' or similar private field settings
    Affected if Private fields with access control restrictions exist in your schema configuration
  4. Determine query endpoint exposure
    Inspect your API endpoint configuration (typically in keystone.js or keystone.ts) to identify if GraphQL or REST query endpoints are exposed externally
    Affected if Query endpoints are accessible without additional authentication or network restrictions

You are affected if your environment runs Keystone 5 version 19.3.2 or lower AND has private fields with access controls AND exposes query endpoints to users or systems that could send crafted queries.

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 a release after 19.3.2
Interim mitigation

No vendor patch or workaround available. Immediate mitigation requires assessing exposure, isolating affected endpoints, and implementing compensating controls until a fix is released by the Keystone project.

Fix this in Keystone 5 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation24.0 h
  • Testing16.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
56.0 hours of engineering $9,760
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $15,616.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-32624 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-32624 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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