dbcve.org
RancherApplication · Suse

CVE-2021-36778

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-05-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.5.12 / 2.6.3 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
A Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows administrators of third-party repositories to gather credentials that are sent to their servers. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.12; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.3.

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

An incorrect authorization vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows administrators of third-party repositories to intercept and gather credentials that are transmitted to their servers. This authorization flaw enables malicious repository administrators to obtain credentials that should not be accessible to them.

MitigationUpgrade Rancher to version 2.5.12 or later, or 2.6.3 or later, depending on the major branch in use.

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
RancherApplication
Affected:< 2.5.12>= 2.6.0, < 2.6.3

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Check Rancher version
    Access the Rancher UI and view the version number in the footer, or run 'kubectl get rancher --namespace cattle-system -o jsonpath='{.items[0].status.rancherVersion}' in the management cluster
    Affected if The installed version is below 2.5.12 (e.g., 2.5.0-2.5.11) or is 2.6.0, 2.6.1, or 2.6.2
  2. Identify configured repositories
    Navigate to the Rancher UI under 'Apps' > 'Repositories' or use the API to list catalog repositories. Identify any repositories that point to external, third-party sources rather than the default SUSE-owned repositories
    Affected if Any third-party or custom repositories are configured that are not maintained by SUSE
  3. Verify credential handling for external repos
    Review how credentials are managed for external repository access. Check if Rancher is configured to transmit authentication credentials to third-party repository servers when syncing or accessing those repositories
    Affected if Credentials are transmitted to third-party repository servers without proper authorization controls preventing the repository administrator from accessing those credentials

A user is affected if they run a vulnerable Rancher version (below 2.5.12 or between 2.6.0-2.6.2) AND have configured third-party repositories that receive credentials they should not have access to.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.5.12 / 2.6.3 or later
Fixed in 2.5.122.6.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Rancher to version 2.5.12 or later, or 2.6.3 or later, depending on the major branch in use.

Recommended fix High confidence

Rancher 2.5.12 or later / Rancher 2.6.3 or later

  1. 1. Back up your Rancher installation andetcd database before upgrading
  2. 2. Schedule a maintenance window as the upgrade may cause brief service interruptions
  3. 3. For Rancher 2.5.x: Upgrade to version 2.5.12 or later
  4. 4. For Rancher 2.6.x: Upgrade to version 2.6.3 or later
  5. 5. Follow the official Rancher upgrade documentation for your deployment method (Docker or Kubernetes)
  6. 6. After upgrade, verify that the Rancher UI is accessible and all workloads are functioning correctly
  7. 7. Review user permissions and third-party repository configurations to ensure authorization settings are correctly applied

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Rancher Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
Get the upgrade done

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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-2021-36778 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