SolarisOperating system · Oracle

CVE-2021-35539

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-10-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
67/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Filesystem). The supported version that is affected is 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle Solaris executes to compromise Oracle Solaris. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a hang or frequently repeatable crash (complete DOS) of Oracle Solaris. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.5 (Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H).

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

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Oracle Solaris 11 filesystem component allowing a low-privileged authenticated user to cause a complete denial of service (system hang or crash). The scope changed rating indicates the vulnerability impacts components beyond the filesystem itself.

MitigationApply Oracle Critical Patch Update or security alert for Solaris 11. If no patch available, restrict local system access to trusted users and implement file integrity monitoring on critical filesystem objects.

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
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 11

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/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 checks

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

  1. Identify the operating system
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to confirm the OS is Oracle Solaris
    Affected if The OS is not Oracle Solaris 11.x, then the CVE does not apply
  2. Determine the Solaris 11 release version
    Run 'cat /etc/release' or 'pkg list entire' to identify the specific Solaris 11.x update release (such as 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, or 11.4)
    Affected if Running any Oracle Solaris 11.x release means the system is within the affected version range (= 11)
  3. Verify local user accounts exist
    Run 'getent passwd' or 'cat /etc/passwd' to list local user accounts on the system
    Affected if The presence of any low-privileged local user accounts creates the authenticated user context required for this vulnerability to be exploitable
  4. Confirm filesystem component is in use
    Run 'df -h' or 'mount' to list mounted filesystems and verify the default filesystem components are active
    Affected if The vulnerability resides in the filesystem component, so standard filesystem operations are being performed

If the system is running any Oracle Solaris 11.x release with local user accounts present, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Oracle Critical Patch Update or security alert for Solaris 11. If no patch available, restrict local system access to trusted users and implement file integrity monitoring on critical filesystem objects.

Fix this in Solaris Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2021-35539 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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