Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw allows a user with limited local access to an affected Microsoft management component to gain elevated privileges. Successful exploitation could enable full compromise of data, configuration, and service availability. The CVSS score is 7.8, and CISA lists the vulnerability as known exploited.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority remediation because exploitation has been documented and successful abuse can produce full system impact. Require rapid asset identification, patch verification, and investigation of exposed systems. The evidence supports urgency, but does not establish that every listed service deployment is vulnerable.
Technical view
CVE-2021-38648 is a local elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in Open Management Infrastructure and associated Microsoft management offerings. The CVSS 3.1 vector indicates low attack complexity, required low privileges, no user interaction, unchanged scope, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. The supplied sources identify no CWE.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where the listed versions of OMI, Log Analytics Agent, SCOM, Azure Stack Hub, or named Azure management, monitoring, diagnostics, security, and automation services are installed. The bundle does not establish whether every deployment includes the vulnerable component, so asset-level confirmation is required.
Exploitation context
CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog identifies CVE-2021-38648 as exploited in the wild. The CVSS vector describes local access with existing low privileges, not an unauthenticated remote attack. The supplied evidence does not describe observed campaigns, exploit prevalence, or affected configurations.
Researcher notes
The record supplies CVSS 3.1 score 7.8 and vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. It names multiple Microsoft services and versions but provides no CWE, root-cause detail, exploitation mechanics, or fixed-version matrix. Consult the MSRC advisory for authoritative applicability and patch details.
Mitigation direction
- Apply the Microsoft security update specified in the MSRC advisory.
- Prioritize internet-facing, sensitive, and multi-user systems containing affected components.
- Check Microsoft guidance for service-specific remediation or automatic update behavior.
- Restrict local access and unnecessary accounts until remediation is verified.
- Monitor affected systems for suspicious privilege elevation and unauthorized changes.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installations of OMI and every listed Microsoft service or agent.
- Compare installed component versions and update status with the MSRC advisory.
- Confirm the Microsoft security update completed successfully on each affected asset.
- Review security telemetry for unexpected privilege changes or privileged process activity.
- Re-scan remediated assets and document any systems requiring exceptions.
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.
Privilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupContainer behavior lookup
The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-38648 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
- 7.8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- Yes
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
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.
CISA KEV status
SSVC decision data
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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C1.85.9microsoftVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.8HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- Added to KEVCISA-ADP
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities metadata lists this CVE as known exploited.
- ADP timelineCISA-ADP
CVE-2021-38648 added to CISA KEV
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
- 2021-11-03T00:00:00.000Z: CVE-2021-38648 added to CISA KEV
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege VulnerabilityCVE reference, microsoft · vendor-advisory, patch
- https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2021-38648CVE reference, CVE · x_refsource_MISC, x_transferred
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-38648CVE reference, CISA-ADP · government-resource
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.