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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-25321 json

arpwatch: Local privilege escalation from runtime user to root

published 2021-06-30 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-12218

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 38%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in arpwatch of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS, SUSE Manager Server 4.0, SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9; openSUSE Factory, Leap 15.2 allows local attackers with control of the runtime user to run arpwatch as to escalate to root upon the next restart of arpwatch. This issue affects: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. SUSE Manager Server 4.0 arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 arpwatch versions prior to 2.1a15. openSUSE Factory arpwatch version 2.1a15-169.5 and prior versions. openSUSE Leap 15.2 arpwatch version 2.1a15-lp152.5.5 and prior versions.

Patch / fix

  • SUSE SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS 2.1a15
  • SUSE SUSE Manager Server 4.0 2.1a15
  • SUSE SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 2.1a15
  • arpwatch SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS +12 more 2.1a15-5.12.1
  • arpwatch SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 2.1a15-131.23.2.6.1
  • arpwatch SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +11 more 2.1a15-159.9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:2177-1SUSE-SU-2021:14759-1SUSE-SU-2021:2175-1

  • arpwatch openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.1-1.2
  • arpwatch openSUSE Leap 15.3 2.1a15-5.12.1
  • arpwatch openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.1a15-lp152.6.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10634-1openSUSE-SU-2021:2177-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0945-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-25321 updated cvss 7.3

arpwatch: Local privilege escalation from runtime user to root

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 arpwatch Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 arpwatch Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 arpwatch
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.44% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.suse.com https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1186240 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • SUSE SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-SP4-LTSS
  • SUSE SUSE Manager Server 4.0
  • SUSE SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9
  • openSUSE Factory
  • openSUSE Leap 15.2

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.