CVE-2021-4142
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 · uneditedThe Candlepin component of Red Hat Satellite was affected by an improper authentication flaw. Few factors could allow an attacker to use the SCA (simple content access) certificate for authentication with Candlepin.
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 analysisThe application uses a user-supplied identifier to look up a record without checking that the requester actually owns it, so changing the identifier in a request returns someone else's data. This is the classic insecure-direct-object-reference — the change-the-ID-in-the-URL bug. Remediation is authorizing every object access against the acting user, not merely confirming they are logged in.
General guidance for the authorization bypass (idor) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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>= 3.1.0, <= 3.1.28-2>= 3.2.0, <= 3.2.21-1>= 4.1.0, <= 4.1.8-1CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 · scopedCandlepin 3.1.29+, 3.2.22+, or 4.1.9+ (or corresponding Red Hat Satellite errata)
- 1. Identify the currently running Candlepin version using 'rpm -q candlepin' or the Candlepin API version endpoint.
- 2. For Candlepin 3.1.x: Upgrade to version 3.1.29 or later.
- 3. For Candlepin 3.2.x: Upgrade to version 3.2.22 or later.
- 4. For Candlepin 4.1.x: Upgrade to version 4.1.9 or later.
- 5. After upgrade, verify the Candlepin service is running: 'systemctl status candlepin'.
- 6. Test authentication to confirm SCA certificates can no longer be used for general API authentication.
- 7. If using Red Hat Satellite, apply the corresponding Red Hat Satellite errata update that includes this fix.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-4142 — 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-2021-4142 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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