Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2021-3652 is an authentication flaw in 389-ds-base. If an account’s imported password hash is a literal asterisk, the account may authenticate with any password instead of remaining disabled. This can reopen accounts that administrators believed were inactive.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation where 389-ds-base is used for enterprise login or privileged service authentication. The issue can undermine account disablement, but urgency should be balanced against the absence of sourced active-exploitation evidence.
Technical view
The issue is classified as CWE-287 improper authentication. In affected 389-ds-base, notably 2.0.7 in the bundle, an imported asterisk password hash is interpreted in a way that lets any supplied password match for that user.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in organizations running 389-ds-base, especially version 2.0.7, where user entries were imported or modified with asterisks as password hashes. Risk is higher when 389 DS backs central authentication.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited evidence of active exploitation. Exploitation appears dependent on the vulnerable account state: a user entry with an imported asterisk password hash.
Researcher notes
Evidence is clear on the authentication failure mode but incomplete on CVSS, fixed versions, and exploit prevalence in the provided bundle. Treat vendor advisories as authoritative for affected package ranges and fixes.
Mitigation direction
- Apply vendor security updates for 389-ds-base from your distribution or 389 DS guidance.
- Review Red Hat, upstream 389 DS, and Debian advisories for fixed package guidance.
- Audit imported user records for literal asterisk password hashes.
- Reset or disable affected accounts using vendor-supported safe values.
- Review authentication logs for unexpected access to disabled accounts.
Validation and detection
- Inventory systems running 389-ds-base and record exact package versions.
- Check whether affected deployments include 389-ds-base 2.0.7 or vulnerable distro builds.
- Review LDAP user entries for disabled accounts with asterisk password hash values.
- Confirm security updates from vendor advisories are installed.
- Verify disabled accounts cannot authenticate through normal identity workflows.
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-287: Credential and account abuse lookup
Authentication and credential weaknesses can make valid-account abuse and credential telemetry useful review starting points. 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-2021-3652 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://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1982782CVE reference
- https://github.com/389ds/389-ds-base/issues/4817CVE reference
- [debian-lts-announce] 20230424 [SECURITY] [DLA 3399-1] 389-ds-base security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/01/msg00015.htmlCVE reference
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 Authentication
Improper Authentication represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.