Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2021-25653 is a high-severity privilege escalation issue in Avaya Aura Appliance Virtualization Platform Utilities. A user with existing access may be able to gain higher privileges, creating risk to confidentiality, integrity, and availability in affected Avaya environments.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority infrastructure risk if affected Avaya Aura AVPU versions are present. It is not supported as actively exploited, but successful escalation could give an attacker powerful control after obtaining privileged access.
Technical view
The CVE describes improper privilege management in AVPU, mapped to CWE-250. Affected versions are Avaya Aura Appliance Virtualization Platform Utilities 8.0.0.0 through 8.1.3.1. CVSS 3.1 score is 8.0 with high complexity and high privileges required.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to organizations running Avaya Aura Appliance Virtualization Platform Utilities versions 8.0.0.0 through 8.1.3.1. The provided sources do not identify other Avaya products or downstream affected components.
Exploitation context
The provided bundle does not support active exploitation; KEV is false. The record describes privilege escalation by a local user, while the CVSS vector lists network attack vector and high privileges required. Treat that discrepancy as a validation point with Avaya guidance.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record and Avaya support reference. The affected range is clear, but the bundle does not include patch details. The local-user description conflicts with the CVSS network attack vector, so confirm exact attack conditions from Avaya.
Mitigation direction
- Identify all AVPU deployments and versions in Avaya Aura environments.
- Review Avaya advisory 101076479 for vendor-approved remediation or upgrade guidance.
- Prioritize remediation for internet-connected or broadly administered management environments.
- Restrict AVPU access to trusted administrators until remediation is complete.
- Monitor privileged account use and unexpected permission changes.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any AVPU version is between 8.0.0.0 and 8.1.3.1.
- Check Avaya support guidance for fixed versions or configuration mitigations.
- Review local and administrative account access to affected AVPU systems.
- Look for unusual privilege changes, new accounts, or unexpected administrative activity.
- Document whether the CVSS/local-user discrepancy affects your exposure model.
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-250: 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 lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-25653 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
- High
- CVSS
- 8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H1.36Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://support.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/101076479CVE 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.
Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Execution with Unnecessary Privileges represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.