Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw is in RPM, the package manager used by many Linux systems. A local unprivileged user could exploit a race condition to bypass earlier safety checks and may gain root privileges. That can turn a normal account or compromised low-privilege service into full system control, affecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation where RPM-based systems have multiple users, exposed services, or build workloads. The business risk is privilege escalation after an initial foothold, not direct internet compromise. Severity metadata is incomplete, but potential root access makes delayed patching risky on shared or high-value systems.
Technical view
CVE-2021-35937 is a race condition in RPM, associated with CWE-59. The CVE states it can bypass checks added for CVE-2017-7500 and CVE-2017-7501, potentially allowing local privilege escalation to root. The provided affected data says the issue is fixed in rpm v4.18.0.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most relevant on Linux systems using RPM where untrusted or low-privilege local users, services, build jobs, or shared hosting workloads exist. The source bundle does not provide a full version range, distribution-specific status, or CPE list.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. This is still operationally important because exploitation is local but could convert an existing foothold into root access. No remote unauthenticated attack path is described in the source bundle.
Researcher notes
The useful constraints are local attacker, race condition, CWE-59, and bypass of prior checks from CVE-2017-7500 and CVE-2017-7501. The source bundle names a fixed upstream release but not detailed vulnerable version boundaries, exploit maturity, or distribution backport mappings.
Mitigation direction
- Update RPM packages according to your Linux vendor advisory.
- Treat rpm v4.18.0 or vendor-backported fixes as the remediation target.
- Restrict local shell access on affected systems where practical.
- Prioritize shared servers, build hosts, and multi-user Linux environments.
- Monitor vendor advisories for distribution-specific fixed package versions.
Validation and detection
- Inventory systems with RPM installed and record package versions.
- Compare installed RPM versions against vendor fixed packages or rpm v4.18.0.
- Check whether affected systems allow untrusted local users or workloads.
- Confirm remediation through package manager metadata and vendor advisory status.
- Document exceptions where vendor status or fixed version is unclear.
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-59: 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-2021-35937 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
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
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 and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.18.0CVE reference
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1964125CVE reference
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35937CVE reference
- https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/sec05/tech/full_papers/borisov/borisov.pdfCVE reference
- GLSA-202210-22CVE reference · vendor-advisory
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 Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.