Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw can let a remote attacker who already has privileged BMC access crash the ASUS BMC web service. It affects specific ASUS BMC firmware versions. The business impact is mainly management-plane availability, not data theft or system takeover based on the provided sources.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate infrastructure management risk. It is not presented as data theft or unauthenticated compromise, but a BMC web-service outage can hinder server administration and incident response. Prioritize if affected BMCs are remotely reachable or privileged account control is weak.
Technical view
CVE-2021-28185 is a CWE-120 buffer overflow in an ASUS BMC firmware web management function for ActiveX configuration acquisition. User-supplied string length is not verified. CVSS 3.1 is 4.9, with network attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction, and high availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to ASUS BMC deployments running Z10PR-D16 firmware 1.14.51, ASMB8-iKVM firmware 1.14.51, or Z10PE-D16 WS firmware 1.14.2, especially where the BMC web interface is reachable by privileged users over a network.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show active exploitation, public exploit availability, or KEV listing. The CVSS vector requires high privileges, so compromise or misuse of a privileged BMC account is a prerequisite. Reported impact is abnormal termination of the web service.
Researcher notes
The provided evidence names affected products and versions but does not identify fixed versions, exploit proofs, or active exploitation. The CVSS impact is availability-only with high privileges required. Validation should focus on version inventory, management-plane reachability, and privileged access paths.
Mitigation direction
- Check ASUS and TWCERT guidance for any fixed firmware or vendor mitigation.
- Restrict BMC web management access to trusted administration networks only.
- Remove internet exposure from affected BMC management interfaces.
- Review and limit privileged BMC accounts to required administrators.
- Monitor affected BMCs for web service crashes or management unavailability.
Validation and detection
- Inventory ASUS BMC firmware versions on affected server platforms.
- Confirm whether BMC web management is reachable from untrusted networks.
- Verify whether any affected firmware version matches the CVE record.
- Review privileged BMC account assignments and recent authentication activity.
- Check operational logs for abnormal BMC web service termination events.
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-120: 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 lookupCVE-2021-28185 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
- 4.9 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/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:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.23.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.9MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.asus.com/content/ASUS-Product-Security-Advisory/CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.asus.com/tw/support/callus/CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.twcert.org.tw/tw/cp-132-4555-3c7c3-1.htmlCVE 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.
Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow')
Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.