Actively exploited · Published Mar 1, 2021 · Assigned by mitre
CVE-2021-27878
High 8.8 Exploited Ransomware
In plain English
A high-severity security flaw in Backup Exec Agent from Veritas. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on April 7, 2023). It has been used in ransomware campaigns. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 24.0% (higher than 98% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Metasploit. Apply updates per vendor instructions.
CISA guidance
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Federal agencies must remediate by Apr 28, 2023.
Official description
An issue was discovered in Veritas Backup Exec before 21.2. The communication between a client and an Agent requires successful authentication, which is typically completed over a secure TLS communication. However, due to a vulnerability in the SHA Authentication scheme, an attacker is able to gain unauthorized access and complete the authentication process. Subsequently, the client can execute data management protocol commands on the authenticated connection. The attacker could use one of these commands to execute an arbitrary command on the system using system privileges.
Affected products (as reported)
References
- https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/security/VTS21-001#issue3 x_refsource_MISC
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/168506/Veritas-Backup-Exec-Agent-Remote-Code-Execution.html x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-27878 government-resource