CVE-2021-36983
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 · uneditedreplay-sorcery-kms in Replay Sorcery 0.6.0 allows a local attacker to gain root privileges via a symlink attack on /tmp/replay-sorcery or /tmp/replay-sorcery/device.sock.
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 confidenceThe replay-sorcery-kms component in Replay Sorcery 0.6.0 uses /tmp/replay-sorcery and /tmp/replay-sorcery/device.sock without proper symlink protection, allowing a local unprivileged attacker to create malicious symlinks that cause the application to write or modify files with root privileges when executed.
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= 0.6.0CVSS 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
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 if Replay Sorcery is installedCheck for the presence of the replay-sorcery binary or package on the system using commands like 'which replay-sorcery', 'dpkg -l | grep replay-sorcery', or 'rpm -qa | grep replay-sorcery'Affected if The package or binary named 'replay-sorcery' is found on the system
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Confirm the installed version is 0.6.0Run 'replay-sorcery --version' or check the package version with 'dpkg -s replay-sorcery' or 'rpm -qi replay-sorcery' and compare to the affected version 0.6.0Affected if The installed version is exactly 0.6.0
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Verify the application runs with elevated privilegesCheck if the replay-sorcery binary has the setuid bit set using 'ls -l $(which replay-sorcery)' or if it is executed via a service running as rootAffected if The application runs with root privileges or is executed by a root-owned process
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Check for the vulnerable /tmp path usageExamine the application configuration or source code for references to /tmp/replay-sorcery or /tmp/replay-sorcery/device.sock paths, or monitor file creation in /tmp during executionAffected if The application creates or uses files under /tmp/replay-sorcery or /tmp/replay-sorcery/device.sock
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Inspect /tmp for existing symlinksCheck for pre-existing symlinks in /tmp that point to the replay-sorcery paths using 'ls -la /tmp/ | grep replay-sorcery'Affected if A symlink named 'replay-sorcery' already exists in /tmp pointing to an attacker-controlled location
A user is affected if Replay Sorcery version 0.6.0 is installed and the application runs with root privileges while using the unprotected /tmp/replay-sorcery paths.
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 dataImplement secure temporary file creation using O_NOFOLLOW and O_EXCL flags, check for existing files/symlinks before creation, or use secure temp file functions like mkstemp() to prevent symlink attacks on /tmp/replay-sorcery paths.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-36983 — 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-2021-36983 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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