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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 17 Nov 2021.
Azure Automation State ConfigurationApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2021-38645

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2021-09-15
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Zero-click Patch available

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
Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

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 · low confidence

This is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft's Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) software. OMI is a standards-based management infrastructure used for remote management of Linux and Windows systems. The vulnerability allows an attacker to elevate their privileges, likely by exploiting how OMI handles authentication or authorization.

MitigationApply the security update for OMI (September 2021 security updates) which addresses this elevation of privilege vulnerability. For systems where patching is not immediately possible, restrict network access to OMI management ports and ensure proper network segmentation.

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
Azure Automation State ConfigurationApplication
Affected:all versions
Azure Automation Update ManagementApplication
Affected:all versions
Azure Diagnostics \(lad\)Application
Affected:all versions
Azure Security CenterApplication
Affected:all versions
Azure SentinelApplication
Affected:all versions
Azure Stack HubApplication
Affected:all versions
Container Monitoring SolutionApplication
Affected:all versions
Log Analytics AgentApplication
Affected:all versions

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
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 checks

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

  1. Verify OMI installation exists
    Check for OMI binaries: on Linux search for /opt/omi, /usr/scx, or run 'omsadmin -v' or 'scxadmin -version'. On Windows check for OMI service via 'sc query omiserver' or look in C:\opt\omi.
    Affected if OMI software is present on the system
  2. Determine OMI version
    Run '/opt/omi/bin/omiserver --version' or 'scxadmin -version'. Alternatively check file version of omiserver.exe on Windows in C:\opt\omi\bin\.
  3. Confirm OMI service is running and accessible
    Check service status with 'sc query omiserver' (Windows) or check process running 'omiserver' (Linux). Verify ports 5985/5986 are listening with 'netstat -an | grep -E "598[56]"' or equivalent.
    Affected if OMI service is running and listening on network ports
  4. Verify authentication configuration
    Check OMI configuration files: /etc/omiserver.conf (Linux) or C:\opt\omi\etc\omiserver.conf (Windows). Look for 'enableAuthentication' setting or examine WS-Management service authentication settings.
    Affected if Authentication is enabled (required for the exploit to work)
  5. Identify OMI user accounts
    Review OMI user configuration in /etc/omiusers (Linux) or check local users granted OMI access. Run 'omicli id' if available to test current user privileges.
    Affected if There are OMI users with any level of access, especially low-privilege accounts

The system is affected if OMI is installed with a version prior to 1.6.8.0, the OMI service is running and network-accessible, and user authentication is enabled with accounts that could be exploited for privilege escalation.

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch portal.msrc.microsoft.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply the security update for OMI (September 2021 security updates) which addresses this elevation of privilege vulnerability. For systems where patching is not immediately possible, restrict network access to OMI management ports and ensure proper network segmentation.

Recommended fix High confidence

OMI version 1.6.8-0 or later; Azure security updates released September 2021 and later

  1. Identify systems running Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) in your environment
  2. Check the current OMI version using the command: dpkg -l | grep omi or rpm -qa | grep omi
  3. For Azure services, apply the latest security updates from Microsoft Update or your Azure portal
  4. For standalone OMI installations, download and install OMI version 1.6.8-0 or later from the Microsoft GitHub repository: https://github.com/microsoft/omi/releases
  5. Restart the OMI service after upgrade: sudo /opt/omi/bin/service_control restart
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the OMI version again
  7. For Azure Automation, Azure Security Center, Azure Sentinel, and other affected Azure services, ensure auto-update is enabled or manually apply the September 2021 or later security updates through the Azure portal
Caveat Review release notes for OMI 1.6.8-0 for any configuration changes; some management scripts may require updates if they depend on specific OMI behavior

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

Fix this in Azure Automation State Configuration Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2021-38645 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