{"id":"CVE-2021-21551","kind":"vulnerability","aliases":["CVE-2021-21551"],"related":[],"title":"Dell dbutil Driver: Dell dbutil Driver Insufficient Access Control Vulnerability","description":"Dell dbutil driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial-of-service (DoS), or information disclosure.\n\nCISA required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.","summary":"Dell's dbutil driver, a low-level driver shipped with some Dell systems, has an access control flaw that lets a local user escalate privileges, crash the system, or read information they should not see. CISA lists it as actively exploited in the wild.","severity":"high","cvss":8.8,"epss":0.80058,"exploited":true,"exploited_at":"2022-03-31T00:00:00+00:00","products":[{"name":"Dell dbutil Driver","fixed":[],"affected":"","ecosystem":"vendor"}],"ecosystems":["vendor"],"tags":["dell","exploited","infrastructure","self-hosted","windows"],"not_affected_if":["unknown"],"how_to_check":null,"fix":"Apply the update from Dell per vendor instructions (CISA required action); the affected and fixed versions are not stated in the sources.","status":"open","published_at":"2021-05-04T16:15:07+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T19:11:52+00:00","triaged_at":"2026-10-23T21:18:10+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:35+00:00","category":"infrastructure","confidence":0.6,"triage":{"at":"2026-10-23T21:18:10Z","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","output":{"fix":"Apply the update from Dell per vendor instructions (CISA required action); the affected and fixed versions are not stated in the sources.","reach":"local","impact":"high","summary":"Dell's dbutil driver, a low-level driver shipped with some Dell systems, has an access control flaw that lets a local user escalate privileges, crash the system, or read information they should not see. CISA lists it as actively exploited in the wild.","category":"infrastructure","who_cares":["dell","windows","self-hosted"],"confidence":0.6,"needs_auth":"yes","worst_case":"local user gains kernel-level privileges on the machine","analyst_note":"Find affected dbutil driver versions and the Dell advisory (DSA-2021-088) to fill in how_to_check and fix; sources give no version data.","how_to_check":"unknown","needs_analyst":true,"not_affected_if":["unknown"],"user_interaction":"no","needs_special_setup":"no","severity_if_unknown":"high"},"cost_usd":0.000454,"input_tokens":2839,"output_tokens":341,"severity_before":"unknown"},"analyst_status":null,"analyst_note":null,"search":"'-2021':12A,15A '-21551':13A,16A 'access':8A,43B,78C 'action':98C 'activ':67B 'appli':99C 'cisa':63B,96C 'contain':75C 'control':9A,44B,79C 'crash':53B 'cve':11A,14A 'dbutil':2A,5A,18A,29B,73C 'dell':1A,4A,17A,20B,27B,39B,72C 'denial':89C 'denial-of-servic':88C 'disclosur':95C 'dos':92C 'driver':3A,6A,19A,30B,35B,74C 'escal':51B,85C 'exploit':21B,68B 'flaw':45B 'host':25B 'inform':58B,94C 'infrastructur':22B 'instruct':103C 'insuffici':7A,77C 'lead':83C 'let':47B 'level':34B 'list':64B 'local':49B 'low':33B 'low-level':32B 'may':82C 'per':101C 'privileg':52B,87C 'read':57B 'requir':97C 'see':62B 'self':24B 'self-host':23B 'servic':91C 'ship':36B 'system':40B,55B 'updat':100C 'user':50B 'vendor':102C 'vulner':10A,80C 'wild':71B 'window':26B","nicknames":[],"mitigations":[],"who_affected":null,"tier":null,"verified":{},"analyst_revisit_at":null,"first_public_at":"2021-05-04T16:15:07+00:00","kev":{"dateAdded":"2022-03-31","dueDate":"2022-04-21","requiredAction":"Apply updates per vendor instructions.","knownRansomwareCampaignUse":"Unknown"},"cvss_vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H","cvss_by":"security_alert@emc.com","poc_count":0,"sources":[{"source":"kev","external_id":"CVE-2021-21551","url":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?search_api_fulltext=CVE-2021-21551","severity":null,"published_at":"2022-03-31T00:00:00+00:00","modified_at":null,"first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T19:11:52+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-25T14:39:40+00:00","note":null},{"source":"epss","external_id":"CVE-2021-21551","url":"https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2021-21551","severity":null,"published_at":null,"modified_at":null,"first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T19:13:44+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-23T19:13:44+00:00","note":null},{"source":"nvd","external_id":"CVE-2021-21551","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-21551","severity":null,"published_at":"2021-05-04T16:15:07+00:00","modified_at":"2026-06-17T03:35:45+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:35+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:35+00:00","note":null}],"documents":[],"notice":"Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai"}