CVE-2021-34904
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 remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Bentley View 10.15.0.75. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of DGN files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current process. Was ZDI-CAN-14877.
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 confidenceHeap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in Bentley View's DGN file parser. The flaw results from insufficient validation of user-supplied data length before copying to a heap buffer, allowing remote code execution in the context of the current process when a malicious DGN file is opened.
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< 10.16.02< 10.16.02CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 installed Bentley productOpen the application and navigate to Help > About Bentley View or Help > About MicroStation to view the version information, or check the installed programs list in Windows Control PanelAffected if The displayed version is below 10.16.02
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Confirm product is Bentley View or MicroStationVerify the installed application name is either Bentley View or MicroStation from the application itself or installed programs listAffected if Product is Bentley View or MicroStation and version is below 10.16.02
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Determine if DGN file handling is usedCheck if the system or user workflow involves opening DGN files, which are design files used by Bentley applicationsAffected if DGN files are opened regularly in the affected product version
A user is affected if they have Bentley View or MicroStation installed with a version number lower than 10.16.02 and they open DGN files, as the heap-based buffer overflow occurs during DGN file parsing.
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 · scoped10.16.02
Do not open untrusted DGN files until vendor patch is applied. Apply the official Bentley security update when available. Run Bentley View with least privileges to limit impact of potential exploitation.
Bentley View 10.16.02 or later / MicroStation 10.16.02 or later
- Identify whether Bentley View or MicroStation is in use
- Check the current installed version of the software
- If the version is below 10.16.02, download version 10.16.02 or later from the official Bentley website
- Install the updated version following Bentley's standard installation process
- Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the software version
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-34904 — 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-2021-34904 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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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.
- 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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