Securewatch Managed ServicesApplication · Corero

CVE-2021-38137

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-08-06
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Corero SecureWatch Managed Services 9.7.2.0020 does not correctly check swa-monitor and cns-monitor user’s privileges, allowing a user to perform actions not belonging to his role.

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

Corero SecureWatch Managed Services 9.7.2.0020 contains an Insecure Privilege Management vulnerability (CWE-269) where the system fails to properly enforce role-based access control checks for swa-monitor and cns-monitor user accounts, allowing authenticated users to perform actions outside their assigned role permissions.

MitigationApply vendor security patch or upgrade to a patched version; until then, restrict access to monitoring accounts and implement additional compensating controls such as enhanced audit logging.

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
Securewatch Managed ServicesApplication
Affected:= 9.7.2.0020

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Confirm installed version
    Use system inventory or version lookup commands/tools provided by Corero SecureWatch to determine the currently installed version number
    Affected if the installed version is exactly 9.7.2.0020
  2. Identify monitor user accounts
    Query the user account database or examine the user management configuration to list all defined user accounts, specifically looking for accounts named 'swa-monitor' and 'cns-monitor'
    Affected if either the swa-monitor or cns-monitor account exists in the system
  3. Verify role assignments for monitor accounts
    Examine the role-based access control configuration for the swa-monitor and cns-monitor accounts to determine what permissions and role they have been assigned
    Affected if these accounts have permissions that exceed standard monitoring role boundaries or have elevated privileges assigned
  4. Test access control enforcement
    Log in using the swa-monitor or cns-monitor account credentials and attempt to perform administrative or configuration actions outside standard monitoring functions
    Affected if the authenticated monitor account can successfully execute actions beyond its assigned monitoring role permissions

A user is affected if their Corero SecureWatch Managed Services installation is version 9.7.2.0020 and the swa-monitor or cns-monitor accounts exist with the ability to perform actions outside their intended monitoring role.

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 vendor security patch or upgrade to a patched version; until then, restrict access to monitoring accounts and implement additional compensating controls such as enhanced audit logging.

Fix this in Securewatch Managed Services Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,200
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,720.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-38137 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-38137 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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