CVE-2021-44678
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 · uneditedAn issue (2 of 6) was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.1.2. On start-up, the Enterprise Vault application starts several services that listen on random .NET Remoting TCP ports for possible commands from client applications. These TCP services can be exploited due to deserialization behavior that is inherent to the .NET Remoting service. A malicious attacker can exploit both TCP remoting services and local IPC services on the Enterprise Vault Server. This vulnerability is mitigated by properly configuring the servers and firewall as described in the vendor's security alert for this vulnerability (VTS21-003, ZDI-CAN-14076).
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 confidenceVeritas Enterprise Vault starts multiple services listening on random .NET Remoting TCP ports that are vulnerable to insecure deserialization. Attackers can send malicious serialized objects to these TCP remoting services (and local IPC services) to achieve remote code execution without authentication.
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<= 14.1.2CVSS 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
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Verify Enterprise Vault installation and versionLocate the Veritas Enterprise Vault installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Veritas\Enterprise Vault\) and check the version from the installer or registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veritas\Enterprise Vault\Install path or the EVServer.exe version propertyAffected if Version is 14.1.2 or lower (any version up to and including 14.1.2)
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Identify .NET Remoting service processesUse netstat -ano to list all listening TCP ports, then cross-reference with EV service processes (typically Enterprise Vault services like 'Enterprise Vault Directory Service', 'Enterprise Vault Storage Service', 'Enterprise Vault Index Service') running under the Veritas service accountAffected if Any EV service is listening on TCP ports (these are the random .NET Remoting ports)
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Check for exposed remoting portsReview firewall rules and network configuration to determine which TCP ports are open/accessible from network segments. Look for any inbound rules allowing traffic to the EV server on the remoting port rangeAffected if The .NET Remoting TCP ports are accessible from untrusted network segments or the internet
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Confirm local IPC service exposureInspect which named pipe endpoints are exposed by checking the EV services configuration and using tools like Task Scheduler or PowerShell Get-Process to identify the EV service processes and their listening endpointsAffected if Local IPC named pipe services are accessible to low-privilege local users or remote attackers
You are affected if Enterprise Vault version 14.1.2 or lower is installed AND its .NET Remoting services are network-accessible or exposed to untrusted users.
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 vendor mitigation from VTS21-003: configure firewalls and server settings to restrict access to the .NET Remoting ports, including network segmentation to limit exposure of these services.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-44678 — 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-2021-44678 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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