CVE-2021-44681
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 (5 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-14080).
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 .NET Remoting TCP services on random ports that are vulnerable to insecure deserialization. Attackers can exploit both the TCP remoting services and local IPC services on the Enterprise Vault server to achieve remote code execution due to the inherent deserialization behavior in .NET Remoting.
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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Confirm Veritas Enterprise Vault installationCheck for the presence of Enterprise Vault by looking for its installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Veritas\Enterprise Vault) or check Windows Services for services starting with 'Enterprise Vault'Affected if The product is installed on the server
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Determine installed Enterprise Vault versionCheck the version by viewing the file properties of EVService.exe in the Enterprise Vault installation directory, or run 'evver.exe' if available in the bin folder, or check the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veritas\Enterprise Vault\InstallAffected if The installed version is 14.1.2 or lower (any version <= 14.1.2)
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Identify .NET Remoting TCP listener portsRun 'netstat -ano | findstr LISTENING' on the Enterprise Vault server and look for TCP ports in the listening state, particularly on ports above 1024 that may change on restart. Check Enterprise Vault configuration files in the installation directory for remoting port definitionsAffected if There are TCP listening services on variable ports that belong to Enterprise Vault (typically in the 5000-6000 range but can be random)
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Verify port exposure to untrusted networksReview Windows Firewall rules and any external firewall configurations to determine if the identified .NET Remoting ports are accessible from non-localhost addresses, or use 'netsh advfirewall firewall show rule all' to enumerate open inbound rulesAffected if The .NET Remoting TCP ports are accessible from network addresses other than localhost/127.0.0.1
A server is affected if Veritas Enterprise Vault version 14.1.2 or lower is installed AND the .NET Remoting TCP services are listening on ports accessible from network segments beyond localhost.
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 · scopedImplement proper network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to the random .NET Remoting ports, as specified in vendor security alert VTS21-003, and ensure the server is not directly exposed to untrusted networks.
Veritas Enterprise Vault 14.1.3 or later (contact Veritas for exact fixed release)
- Contact Veritas support to obtain the full security alert VTS21-003 documentation and configuration guidance
- Review the specific firewall and server configuration requirements described in VTS21-003
- Implement the recommended firewall rules to restrict access to the .NET Remoting TCP ports
- Apply the server configuration mitigations specified in the vendor alert
- Verify the configuration changes by monitoring network access to the remoting services
- Consider upgrading to a newer version of Enterprise Vault when available from Veritas
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-44681 — 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-2021-44681 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