CVE-2021-21551
Dell dbutil Driver Insufficient Access Control Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 21 April 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 79.63% probability · 100th percentile
- Public exploits
- 1 in Exploit-DB · first 21 May 2021
- CISA KEV
- Listed 31 March 2022 · due 21 April 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-782
- Affected
- dell/dbutil
- Source
- security_alert@emc.com
EPSS 79.6% since 30 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-21551
Public exploits (1)
Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerabilityMitigation, Vendor Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerabilityMitigation, Vendor Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-21551US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.