CVE-2021-40604
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 · uneditedA Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in IPS Community Suite before 4.6.2 allows remote authenticated users to request arbitrary URLs or trigger deserialization via phar protocol when generating class names dynamically. In some cases an exploitation is possible by an unauthenticated user.
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 confidenceSSRF vulnerability in IPS Community Suite before version 4.6.2 allows remote authenticated users (and in some cases unauthenticated users) to request arbitrary URLs and trigger dangerous deserialization via phar protocol through insecure dynamic class name generation.
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< 4.6.2CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify IPS Community Suite versionLog into the admin dashboard and navigate to System > Overview, or check the version.php file in the application's root directory if accessibleAffected if The installed version is lower than 4.6.2 (e.g., 4.6.1, 4.6.0, 4.5.x, etc.)
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Check for unauthenticated access exposureDetermine if the application allows guest/unregistered users to access features that could trigger URL requests or deserialization operationsAffected if Unauthenticated users can access the application without registration restrictions, as the CVE notes both authenticated and unauthenticated users can exploit this flaw
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Identify dynamic class instantiation endpointsReview application logs or network traffic for requests to endpoints that accept class names as parameters, particularly those involved in file/image importing or URL fetching functionalityAffected if The application uses dynamic class loading based on user-controlled input without proper validation
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Audit phar protocol handlingSearch the application codebase for usages of unserialize() or similar deserialization functions that process data from phar:// protocol requestsAffected if The application processes phar protocol streams in deserialization operations without sanitization
A user is affected if their IPS Community Suite installation is version 4.6.1 or earlier and the application allows authenticated or unauthenticated users to access features that utilize dynamic class instantiation or process phar protocol data.
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.
dbcve · scoped4.6.2
Upgrade IPS Community Suite to version 4.6.2 or later to patch the vulnerable dynamic class name generation code that enables SSRF and phar deserialization attacks.
4.6.2
- Upgrade IPS Community Suite to version 4.6.2 or later
- After upgrading, verify the installation by checking the admin dashboard version number
- Test core functionality to ensure the upgrade completed successfully
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-40604 — 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-2021-40604 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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