Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Dell EMC Avamar 18.2 and 19.1 through 19.4 stored passwords in plain text. An attacker already holding high privileges could abuse this to cause a complete outage. The issue is serious for organizations relying on Avamar backup availability, but the source data indicates local access and high privileges are required.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate-priority backup infrastructure risk. It is not described as remotely exploitable or actively exploited, but successful abuse could disrupt backup availability, which can materially affect recovery readiness during incidents.
Technical view
CVE-2021-36318 is a plain-text password storage issue in Dell EMC Avamar versions 18.2, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, and 19.4, mapped to CWE-532. CVSS 3.1 is 6.7 with local attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to organizations running the listed Dell EMC Avamar versions. Risk is highest where many administrators or service accounts have privileged local access to Avamar systems, or where backup infrastructure is not tightly isolated.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing, public exploitation, or exploit availability. The CVSS vector requires local access and high privileges. The documented impact is severe once exploited: possible complete outage.
Researcher notes
Key constraints are local access and high privileges. The source bundle names affected Avamar versions and outage impact, but does not provide patch version details or exploit evidence. Avoid assuming broader Dell products are affected without vendor confirmation.
Mitigation direction
- Check Dell advisory 000193369 for the vendor-supported remediation path.
- Inventory Avamar deployments and identify versions 18.2 and 19.1 through 19.4.
- Restrict high-privilege local access to Avamar systems to essential administrators only.
- Review privileged account hygiene and rotate credentials if exposure is suspected.
- Monitor Dell support channels for any updated guidance.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any Avamar instances run affected versions.
- Verify privileged local access is limited and logged.
- Review vendor-documented areas for exposed plaintext password storage.
- Confirm remediation status against Dell advisory 000193369.
- Check backup service availability after any remediation activity.
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-532: 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 lookupCredential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-36318 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
- 6.7 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H0.85.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.7MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/000193369CVE reference
- GLSA-202210-09CVE 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.
Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.