CVE-2021-27877Veritas Backup Exec Agent Improper Authentication Vulnerability
CVE-2021-27877 is a vulnerability in Veritas Backup Exec Agent, rated critical (9.8 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
The record does not classify the weakness yet; the description below says what the reporter found.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline.
Is it being exploited?
CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-04-07: it is being exploited in the wild. CISA links it to ransomware campaigns. It can be exploited automatically, at scale. EPSS estimates a 65% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 99% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2023-04-28.
- Upgrade Veritas Backup Exec Agent to 21.2 or later.
- Until it is patched, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
- Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.
Description from NVD
An issue was discovered in Veritas Backup Exec before 21.2. It supports multiple authentication schemes: SHA authentication is one of these. This authentication scheme is no longer used in current versions of the product, but hadn't yet been disabled. An attacker could remotely exploit this scheme to gain unauthorized access to an Agent and execute privileged commands.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Veritas Backup Exec Agent. Start from where it runs and what it is connected to.
Trust boundaries in play
- Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does Veritas Backup Exec Agent run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Read more
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.