CVE-2021-34802
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 · uneditedA failure in resetting the security context in some transaction actions in Neo4j Graph Database 4.2 and 4.3 could allow authenticated users to execute commands with elevated privileges.
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 confidenceA failure in resetting the security context in certain transaction actions in Neo4j Graph Database versions 4.2 and 4.3 allows authenticated users to execute commands with elevated privileges, enabling privilege escalation beyond their assigned role permissions.
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= 4.2= 4.3CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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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Identify Neo4j versionRun 'cypher-shell -u <user> -p <password> "RETURN apoc.version();"' or check the neo4j version via 'neo4j --version' command, or inspect the product version in your package manager or installation directoryAffected if The installed version is 4.2.x or 4.3.x (any patch level within these minor versions)
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Verify authentication is enabledExecute 'CALL dbms.security.listSettings() YIELD name, value WHERE name = "dbms.security.auth_enabled" RETURN value;' in cypher-shell to check if authentication is activeAffected if Authentication is enabled (value is 'true'), because this CVE requires an authenticated user to perform privilege escalation
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Review assigned user rolesExecute 'CALL dbms.security.listRoles()' and 'CALL dbms.security.listRolesForUser("<username>")' to see what roles the authenticated user has been assignedAffected if The user has any non-admin role, as the vulnerability allows escalation beyond the assigned role permissions
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Inspect transaction settingsCheck theneo4j.conf or apoc.conf configuration files for custom transaction settings, or query 'CALL dbms.listConfig()' for transaction-related parametersAffected if Non-default transaction configuration exists, as the flaw is in transaction action handling
You are affected if Neo4j 4.2.x or 4.3.x is running with authentication enabled and users have defined roles, because the vulnerability enables authenticated users to escalate privileges beyond their assigned role in transaction operations.
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 to a patched version of Neo4j 4.2.4+, 4.3.1+, or later that properly resets security contexts in transaction handling, or apply vendor-supplied security patches.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,136.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-34802 — 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-2021-34802 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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