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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2021-45100 json

The ksmbd server through 3.4.2, as used in the Linux kernel through 5.15.8, sometimes communicates in cleartext even though encryption has…

published 2021-12-16 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-31891

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 60%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The ksmbd server through 3.4.2, as used in the Linux kernel through 5.15.8, sometimes communicates in cleartext even though encryption has been enabled. This occurs because it sets the SMB2_GLOBAL_CAP_ENCRYPTION flag when using the SMB 3.1.1 protocol, which is a violation of the SMB protocol specification. When Windows 10 detects this protocol violation, it disables encryption.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.15.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-45100

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-2021-45100 updated cvss 7.5

kernel: ksmbd server communicates in cleartext even though encryption has been enabled due to a violation of the SMB protocol specification

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +81 more
    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

0.91% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-319 Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

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.