Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2021-23259 affects Crafter CMS 3.1. A user who already has Administrator or Developer privileges could use Groovy scripting functionality without proper sandbox restrictions to run operating system commands. This is serious where privileged CMS accounts are shared, weakly protected, or exposed, but the public scoring indicates high privileges, high complexity, and user interaction are required.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate-priority privileged-user RCE risk. It is not cited as actively exploited, but environments running Crafter CMS 3.1 should be reviewed promptly because compromise or misuse of a privileged CMS account could affect service availability.
Technical view
The issue is a Groovy sandbox bypass in Crafter CMS 3.1, mapped to CWE-913. The CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, score 4.2. Sources describe unrestricted Groovy script execution during webpage rendering, enabling authenticated privileged users to execute OS commands remotely.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to Crafter CMS 3.1 deployments with users holding Administrator or Developer roles. Risk rises if privileged accounts are internet-accessible, weakly governed, or used by many staff.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show active exploitation, and CISA KEV status is false. Exploitation requires high privileges and user interaction according to the CVSS vector, but successful abuse could create high availability impact through OS command execution.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record and Crafter advisory reference. Do not assume affected versions beyond Crafter CMS 3.1 from the supplied sources. No exploit availability, public exploitation, or specific fixed version is stated in the provided bundle.
Mitigation direction
- Review Crafter advisory CV-2021120102 for vendor-approved fixes or mitigations.
- Inventory all Crafter CMS 3.1 deployments and prioritize privileged-access environments.
- Restrict Administrator and Developer roles to necessary, named users only.
- Limit CMS administrative access to trusted networks where operationally possible.
- Monitor privileged Groovy/script activity and unexpected OS-level process behavior.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any deployed Crafter CMS instance is version 3.1.
- Review current Administrator and Developer role assignments.
- Check whether Groovy scripting or page-rendering features are enabled and used.
- Review logs for unusual privileged script execution or service crashes.
- Verify remediation status against the Crafter security advisory.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-913: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-23259 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.2 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H0.53.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.2MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://docs.craftercms.org/en/3.1/security/advisory.html#cv-2021120102CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Control of Dynamically-Managed Code Resources
Improper Control of Dynamically-Managed Code Resources represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.