CVE-2021-42061
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 · uneditedSAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform (Web Intelligence) - version 420, does not sufficiently encode user-controlled inputs, resulting in Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. This allows a low privileged attacker to retrieve some data from the victim but will never be able to modify the document and publish these modifications to the server. It impacts the "Quick Prompt" workflow.
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 confidenceSAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence version 420 contains a stored XSS vulnerability in the 'Quick Prompt' workflow where user-controlled inputs are not properly encoded, allowing low-privileged attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in other users' browsers to exfiltrate data.
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= 420CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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 the installed SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform versionAccess the SAP BusinessObjects Central Management Console (CMC) or check the system information through the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Administration tool. Navigate to the 'About' or 'Version Information' section to confirm the exact version number.Affected if The installed version is exactly 420 (version 420)
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Confirm Web Intelligence module is enabledLog into the SAP BusinessObjects CMC and navigate to the 'Applications' section. Verify that the 'Web Intelligence' application is listed as enabled and running.Affected if Web Intelligence is enabled and accessible to users
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Verify Quick Prompt functionality existsLaunch the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Rich Client or Web Intelligence HTML interface. Create a new document or open an existing one and check if the 'Quick Prompt' option is available in the query or reporting workflow.Affected if Quick Prompt feature is available in the Web Intelligence interface
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Check user access to Web IntelligenceIn the CMC, verify that standard (low-privileged) users have rights to access Web Intelligence and create/modify documents containing prompts.Affected if Low-privileged users have access to create or modify Web Intelligence documents
A user is affected if they run SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform version 420 with Web Intelligence enabled and the Quick Prompt feature accessible to users, as this creates the conditions for stored XSS execution in other users' browsers.
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.
From vendor dataApply proper input validation and output encoding to all user-controlled inputs within the Quick Prompt functionality in Web Intelligence, and test the fix for successful XSS prevention.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-42061 — 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-2021-42061 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data