Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2021-32785


mod_auth_openidc is an authentication/authorization module for the Apache 2.x HTTP server that functions as an OpenID Connect Relying Party, authenticating users against an OpenID Connect Provider. When mod_auth_openidc versions prior to 2.4.9 are configured to use an unencrypted Redis cache (`OIDCCacheEncrypt off`, `OIDCSessionType server-cache`, `OIDCCacheType redis`), `mod_auth_openidc` wrongly performed argument interpolation before passing Redis requests to `hiredis`, which would perform it again and lead to an uncontrolled format string bug. Initial assessment shows that this bug does not appear to allow gaining arbitrary code execution, but can reliably provoke a denial of service by repeatedly crashing the Apache workers. This bug has been corrected in version 2.4.9 by performing argument interpolation only once, using the `hiredis` API. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by setting `OIDCCacheEncrypt` to `on`, as cache keys are cryptographically hashed before use when this option is enabled.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.3, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and limited availability for affected systems. Impacting 4 products from openidc, from apache, from netapp and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2021, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2021-07-22T22:15:08.140

Last Modified

2024-11-21T06:07:44.050

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: NONE
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-134
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-134

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application openidc mod_auth_openidc < 2.4.9 Yes
Application apache http_server ≤ 2.4.48 No
Application netapp cloud_backup - Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 10.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For openidc's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.