Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Dell EMC PowerScale OneFS 8.2.x through 9.2.x has a permissions flaw that could let a low-privileged authenticated user gain higher privileges. The impact is serious because successful abuse could affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability, but the CVSS vector rates exploitation complexity as high.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority infrastructure risk for affected PowerScale deployments, especially where many internal users or service accounts can authenticate. Remediation should follow Dell guidance, with account-access review as a near-term risk reduction step.
Technical view
CVE-2021-36281 is an incorrect permission assignment vulnerability in Dell EMC PowerScale OneFS versions 8.2.x through 9.2.x. It is network-reachable, requires low privileges, needs no user interaction, has unchanged scope, and carries high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. No CWE is listed in the provided sources.
Likely exposure
Organizations running Dell EMC PowerScale OneFS 8.2.x through 9.2.x are the stated exposure group. Risk is most relevant where low-privileged users or service accounts can authenticate to affected PowerScale environments.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or other cited evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability requires an authenticated low-privileged user and is rated high complexity, so exposure depends on account access and environment configuration.
Researcher notes
Public details are limited. The bundle identifies the affected product range, privilege requirement, CVSS vector, and impact, but not the exact permission object, vulnerable component, fixed versions, CWE, or exploit mechanics. Do not infer exploitability beyond the cited CVSS and CVE text.
Mitigation direction
- Check Dell advisory 000190408 for supported remediation guidance.
- Inventory PowerScale OneFS versions across all clusters.
- Prioritize remediation for systems on OneFS 8.2.x through 9.2.x.
- Limit and review low-privileged authenticated access to affected environments.
- Monitor for unexpected privilege or permission changes.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether each cluster runs OneFS 8.2.x through 9.2.x.
- Verify Dell advisory remediation has been applied where applicable.
- Review low-privileged local, domain, and service accounts with access.
- Check logs for unusual privilege changes or permission updates.
- Document residual exposure where remediation guidance is not yet implemented.
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.
CVE-2021-36281 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
- 7.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H1.65.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/000190408CVE 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.