Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Certain Hillrom Welch Allyn cardiology products could let someone sign in as a provisioned Active Directory user without a password when SSO is enabled. That could expose clinical application data and allow actions with the chosen account’s privileges. The issue is high severity, but the source bundle does not cite known active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority healthcare application authentication risk where affected products are present with SSO enabled. Prioritize inventory, vendor guidance review, and access restriction. Urgency is higher for systems reachable beyond tightly controlled clinical networks or holding sensitive patient diagnostic data.
Technical view
CVE-2021-43935 is an improper authentication issue, CWE-288, in specified Welch Allyn cardio products configured for SSO. The application may accept manual entry of any provisioned AD account without password verification, granting that account’s privileges. CVSS v3.1 is 8.1: network attack vector, high complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, high impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure appears limited to the named Hillrom Welch Allyn product versions when configured to use SSO and with AD accounts provisioned in the application. Likely environments include healthcare cardiology, stress testing, ECG, Holter analysis, and related diagnostic workflows using those versions.
Exploitation context
The source bundle marks KEV as false and provides no cited evidence of active exploitation. The CVSS vector says exploitation is network reachable, requires no prior privileges or user interaction, but has high attack complexity. The key precondition is SSO configuration on affected versions.
Researcher notes
Evidence is specific about affected product versions, SSO dependency, and AD account impersonation without password verification. The bundle does not include patch version details or a named workaround. Avoid assuming all deployments are affected; validate product version, SSO configuration, and AD provisioning state.
Mitigation direction
- Identify affected Hillrom Welch Allyn products and exact deployed versions.
- Determine whether SSO is enabled on each affected deployment.
- Review CISA and Hillrom guidance for supported remediation or configuration changes.
- Restrict access to affected applications to trusted clinical and administrative networks.
- Review privileged AD account provisioning in the affected applications.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Q-Stress 6.0.0, X-Scribe 5.01, and Diagnostic Cardiology Suite 2.1.0.
- Inventory Vision Express 6.1.0, H-Scribe 5.01, R-Scribe 5.01, and Connex Cardio 1.0.0.
- Confirm whether each installation is configured for SSO.
- Review application access logs for unexplained AD-account logins or privilege use.
- Confirm vendor remediation status against the CISA advisory.
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-288: 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-2021-43935 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
- 8.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/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:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H2.25.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8.1HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ics/advisories/icsma-21-343-01CVE 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.
Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.