CVE-2021-3840 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2021-3840
Vulnerability Scoring

8.8
/10
Severe Risk

Cybersecurity professionals consider CVE-2021-3840 an immediate threat requiring urgent mitigation.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: Low
    Exploits can be performed without significant complexity or special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Network
    Vulnerability is exploitable over a network without physical access.
  • Privileges Required: None
    No privileges are required for exploitation.
  • Scope: Unchanged
    Exploit remains within the originally vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: Required
    User interaction is necessary for successful exploitation.

CVE-2021-3840 Details

Status: Modified

Last updated: 🕕 21 Nov 2024, 06:22 UTC
Originally published on: 🕙 12 Nov 2021, 22:15 UTC

Time between publication and last update: 1104 days

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

psirt@lenovo.com

CVSS3 Type

Secondary

CVSS3 Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE-2021-3840 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2021-3840: A dependency confusion vulnerability was reported in the Antilles open-source software prior to version 1.0.1 that could allow for remote code execution during installation due to a package listed in requirements.txt not existing in the public package index (PyPi). MITRE classifies this weakness as an Uncontrolled Search Path Element (CWE-427) in which a private package dependency may be replaced by an unauthorized package of the same name published to a well-known public repository such as PyPi. The configuration has been updated to only install components built by Antilles, removing all other public package indexes. Additionally, the antilles-tools dependency has been published to PyPi.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2021-3840

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2021-3840 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2021-3840

With low attack complexity and no required privileges, CVE-2021-3840 is an easy target for cybercriminals. Organizations should prioritize immediate mitigation measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2021-3840, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2021-3840, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: High
    Exploiting CVE-2021-3840 can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, severely compromising data privacy.
  • Integrity: High
    CVE-2021-3840 could allow unauthorized modifications to data, potentially affecting system reliability and trust.
  • Availability: High
    CVE-2021-3840 can disrupt system operations, potentially causing complete denial of service (DoS).

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.

EPSS Score: 0.523% (probability of exploit)

EPSS Percentile: 77.18% (lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 22.819999999999993% of others.

CVE-2021-3840 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-427

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Leveraging/Manipulating Configuration File Search Paths CAPEC-38 This pattern of attack sees an adversary load a malicious resource into a program's standard path so that when a known command is executed then the system instead executes the malicious component. The adversary can either modify the search path a program uses, like a PATH variable or classpath, or they can manipulate resources on the path to point to their malicious components. J2EE applications and other component based applications that are built from multiple binaries can have very long list of dependencies to execute. If one of these libraries and/or references is controllable by the attacker then application controls can be circumvented by the attacker.
  • Search Order Hijacking CAPEC-471 An adversary exploits a weakness in an application's specification of external libraries to exploit the functionality of the loader where the process loading the library searches first in the same directory in which the process binary resides and then in other directories. Exploitation of this preferential search order can allow an attacker to make the loading process load the adversary's rogue library rather than the legitimate library. This attack can be leveraged with many different libraries and with many different loading processes. No forensic trails are left in the system's registry or file system that an incorrect library had been loaded.

Vulnerable Configurations

  • cpe:2.3:a:lenovo:antilles:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:lenovo:antilles:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:lenovo:antilles:1.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:lenovo:antilles:1.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Protect Your Infrastructure against CVE-2021-3840: Combat Critical CVE Threats

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