CVE-2021-42135
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 · uneditedHashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise 1.8.x through 1.8.4 may have an unexpected interaction between glob-related policies and the Google Cloud secrets engine. Users may, in some situations, have more privileges than intended, e.g., a user with read permission for the /gcp/roleset/* path may be able to issue Google Cloud service account credentials.
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 confidenceThe vulnerability allows privilege escalation in the GCP secrets engine through unexpected glob policy interactions. Users granted read access to /gcp/roleset/* paths can unexpectedly issue GCP service account credentials beyond their intended permissions.
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>= 1.8.0, <= 1.8.4CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 Vault versionRun `vault version` or check the Vault server log at startup to determine the installed version numberAffected if The version is between 1.8.0 and 1.8.4 inclusive
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Verify GCP secrets engine is enabledRun `vault secrets list` to list all enabled secrets engines and check for entries under path `gcp/`Affected if The GCP secrets engine is enabled at any path
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Check for glob policies on /gcp/roleset/*Run `vault policy list` to list all policies, then `vault policy read <policyname>` for each to inspect for policy rules containing `path "gcp/roleset/*"` with read capabilitiesAffected if A policy grants glob-style read access (read capability) to path `gcp/roleset/*`
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Identify users with elevated accessReview the policies from step 3 and run `vault token lookup` or `vault list identity/entity/id` to identify which entities or groups are assigned those policiesAffected if Any token, entity, or group is associated with a policy granting glob access to gcp/roleset/*
You are affected if Vault version is 1.8.0-1.8.4 AND the GCP secrets engine is enabled AND policies grant glob read access to /gcp/roleset/* paths, allowing users to potentially obtain service account credentials beyond their intended permissions.
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 · scopedUpgrade HashiCorp Vault to version 1.8.5 or later to patch the glob policy parsing issue in the GCP secrets engine.
Vault 1.8.5 or later (preferably latest 1.8.x stable release)
- Upgrade HashiCorp Vault from version 1.8.0-1.8.4 to version 1.8.5 or later
- After upgrading, review all policies that use glob patterns (wildcards like *) with the /gcp/ paths
- Specifically audit policies granting read access to /gcp/roleset/* paths
- Verify that only intended users can issue Google Cloud service account credentials
- Test the fix by attempting to confirm that users with /gcp/roleset/* read permissions cannot perform write operations they should not have access to
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-42135 — 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-2021-42135 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