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EjbcaApplication · Primekey

CVE-2021-40088

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-08-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.6.0 or later.
See remediation →
60/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An issue was discovered in PrimeKey EJBCA before 7.6.0. CMP RA Mode can be configured to use a known client certificate to authenticate enrolling clients. The same RA client certificate is used for revocation requests as well. While enrollment enforces multi tenancy constraints (by verifying that the client certificate has access to the CA and Profiles being enrolled against), this check was not performed when authenticating revocation operations, allowing a known tenant to revoke a certificate belonging to another tenant.

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 confidence

In PrimeKey EJBCA before 7.6.0, the CMP RA mode uses a shared client certificate for both enrollment and revocation authentication. While enrollment properly validates multi-tenancy constraints by checking that the client certificate has access to the requested CA and Profiles, this authorization check was missing during revocation operations. This allowed an authenticated tenant to revoke certificates belonging to other tenants, constituting a broken access control vulnerability in a multi-tenant PKI environment.

MitigationUpgrade to EJBCA 7.6.0 or later which implements multi-tenancy validation for revocation operations, or apply the vendor-supplied patch if available.

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
EjbcaApplication
Affected:< 7.6.0

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
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

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

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 EJBCA version
    Check the installed EJBCA version by viewing the admin web interface footer, or run: java -jar ejbca --version, or check the build.properties file in the EJBCA installation directory
    Affected if The version is below 7.6.0
  2. Confirm CMP RA mode is enabled
    Log into the EJBCA Admin Web UI, navigate to CMP > CMP Aliases, and review the configuration. Check if 'RA mode' or 'RAMode' is enabled for any CMP alias
    Affected if CMP RA mode is enabled and configured for any CMP alias
  3. Verify multi-tenancy is configured
    In the Admin Web UI, navigate to 'Edit Public Web Pages' or check CA and End Entity Profiles. Look for multiple CAs or End Entity Profiles assigned to different tenants, or check if tenant isolation is configured
    Affected if Multiple tenants are configured with separate CAs or End Entity Profiles in EJBCA
  4. Inspect CMP authorization settings
    Navigate to CMP > CMP Aliases > [alias] > Authentication. Verify if the configuration uses shared client certificates for both enrollment and revocation. Check if 'Allow Revocation' or similar revocation permissions are granted to authenticated CMP clients without tenant-specific restrictions
    Affected if The CMP configuration allows revocation operations using client certificates without tenant-specific authorization checks, or if the same certificate can be used for revocation across different tenants

You are affected if running EJBCA version below 7.6.0, CMP RA mode is enabled, multi-tenancy is configured, and the CMP alias permits revocation without validating that the requesting tenant owns the certificate being revoked.

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 7.6.0 or later
Fixed in 7.6.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to EJBCA 7.6.0 or later which implements multi-tenancy validation for revocation operations, or apply the vendor-supplied patch if available.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

EJBCA 7.6.0 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current EJBCA version running in your environment using the admin web interface or command line tools.
  2. 2. Review EJBCA 7.6.0 release notes from PrimeKey support (support.primekey.com) for upgrade procedures and any prerequisites.
  3. 3. Create a full backup of the EJBCA database and configuration files before proceeding with the upgrade.
  4. 4. If running in a clustered environment, plan a rolling upgrade to maintain availability.
  5. 5. Upgrade EJBCA to version 7.6.0 or later following the vendor's documented upgrade procedure.
  6. 6. After upgrade, verify that CMP RA Mode multi-tenancy enforcement now applies to revocation operations by testing that a tenant cannot revoke certificates belonging to other tenants.
Caveat Review vendor release notes for any configuration or feature changes between your current version and 7.6.0 before upgrading

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

Fix this in Ejbca Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,840
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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-2021-40088 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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