What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-44678?

CVE-2021-44678 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. EPSS exploitation probability: 1.8%.

Enterprise Vault CVE-2021-44678

CRITICAL

Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502)

2021-12-06 cve@mitre.org

Deserialization Hashicorp Enterprise Vault Veritas

9.8

CVSS 3.1 · NVD

View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness	CWE CWE-502 OWASP Top 10:2025 A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures ASVS 5.0 V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Safe deserialization, type allowlists MITRE ATT&CK 2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. Sign in to read
Impact	CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required.
Exploit ScenarioDerived	A remote attacker could execute arbitrary code through malicious serialized objects by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.

No patch listed yet 1.8% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAI

An issue (2 of 6) was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.1.2. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Avoid deserializing untrusted data. Use safe serialization formats (JSON). Implement integrity checks and type allowlists.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502), which allows attackers to execute arbitrary code through malicious serialized objects. An issue (2 of 6) was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.1.2. On start-up, the Enterprise Vault application starts several services that listen on random .NET Remoting TCP ports for possible commands from client applications. These TCP services can be exploited due to deserialization behavior that is inherent to the .NET Remoting service. A malicious attacker can exploit both TCP remoting services and local IPC services on the Enterprise Vault Server. This vulnerability is mitigated by properly configuring the servers and firewall as described in the vendor's security alert for this vulnerability (VTS21-003, ZDI-CAN-14076). Affected products include: Veritas Enterprise Vault. Version information: through 14.1.2..

Know when Enterprise Vault gets its next vulnerability

Watch products and get an email when something new is published
Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

Continue with Google Continue with GitHub

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL

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

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

DescriptionNVD

An issue (2 of 6) was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.1.2. On start-up, the Enterprise Vault application starts several services that listen on random .NET Remoting TCP ports for possible commands from client applications. These TCP services can be exploited due to deserialization behavior that is inherent to the .NET Remoting service. A malicious attacker can exploit both TCP remoting services and local IPC services on the Enterprise Vault Server. This vulnerability is mitigated by properly configuring the servers and firewall as described in the vendor's security alert for this vulnerability (VTS21-003, ZDI-CAN-14076).

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score

1.8%

Top 24% exploitable

Data Quality

2 sources

Confidence: Low

NVD

CVE.org

EPSS

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue

Severity CRITICAL

CISA KEV No

Public POC No

EPSS 1.8%

Patch available No

Active threat No

Deciding rule

CRITICAL severity

What every action level means

Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.

Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived

Scheduled

Exploitation· derived

None

System Exposure· derived

Open

Automatable· derived

Yes

Human Impact· derived

Medium

Priority Score

Low Medium High Critical

KEV: 0

EPSS: +2

CVSS: +49

PoC: 0

Weaponized: 0

Threat intel: 0

Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Insecure Deserialization CRITICAL

Insecure deserialization occurs when an application converts serialized data (a stream of bytes representing an object's state) back into a living object without proper validation.