Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
PingID Desktop before 1.7.3 had an encryption library misconfiguration that could expose sensitive data. The stated business risk is serious because successful abuse may let an attacker complete an MFA challenge using OTP, weakening a core identity control.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority identity control issue. The privilege and complexity requirements reduce broad opportunistic risk, but potential MFA bypass impact warrants timely remediation where PingID Desktop is deployed.
Technical view
CVE-2021-42001 affects Ping Identity PingID Desktop prior to 1.7.3. The CVSS 3.1 score is 8.0, with high complexity and high privileges required, no user interaction, scope change, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts. It is mapped to CWE-310.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to environments running PingID Desktop versions earlier than 1.7.3. The source bundle does not specify platforms, deployment modes, or exact vulnerable subversions beyond that boundary.
Exploitation context
The CVE description says exploitation may allow successful MFA completion via OTP. It is not listed in KEV, and the provided sources do not show active exploitation or public exploit availability.
Researcher notes
Evidence is sparse. The bundle identifies affected product, version boundary, CVSS vector, CWE-310, and outcome, but not exploit mechanics, platform scope, or detailed vendor mitigation steps.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade PingID Desktop installations to version 1.7.3 or later.
- Check Ping Identity download and documentation pages for current vendor guidance.
- Prioritize systems supporting privileged or high-risk user MFA workflows.
- Monitor MFA activity for unusual OTP challenge completions.
Validation and detection
- Inventory PingID Desktop installations and record exact versions.
- Flag any instance older than 1.7.3 as affected.
- Confirm upgraded clients report version 1.7.3 or later.
- Review MFA logs for unexplained OTP challenge completions.
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-310: 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-2021-42001 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
- 8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H1.36Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.pingidentity.com/en/resources/downloads/pingid.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://docs.pingidentity.com/bundle/pingid/page/dyt1645545885978.htmlCVE 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.
Cryptographic Issues
Cryptographic Issues represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.