Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Bentley MicroStation CONNECT 10.16.0.80 can be compromised when a user opens a malicious PDF or visits a malicious page. Successful exploitation could let an attacker run code with that user’s privileges. This is high urgency for teams that exchange design files or PDFs from outside parties.
Executive priority
Treat as a high-priority workstation and engineering-environment issue. It is not described as wormable or actively exploited, but a single malicious project file could compromise a design user’s machine and business data.
Technical view
The flaw is a CWE-125 out-of-bounds read in PDF parsing. Crafted PDF data can cause a read past an allocated buffer and may lead to arbitrary code execution in the current MicroStation process. The CVSS 3.0 score is 7.8 with user interaction required.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to organizations running Bentley MicroStation CONNECT 10.16.0.80, especially users who open external PDFs or receive project documents from partners, vendors, or clients. The source bundle does not identify other affected versions.
Exploitation context
The sources describe remote attacker-controlled content, but exploitation requires the target to open a malicious file or visit a malicious page. CISA KEV status is false, and the provided sources do not state active exploitation in the wild.
Researcher notes
Analysis is constrained to the supplied CVE, Bentley, and ZDI references. The bundle names one affected version and does not include detailed patch version text. Avoid broad version claims unless confirmed from Bentley’s advisory.
Mitigation direction
- Check Bentley BE-2021-0003 for official remediation and version guidance.
- Apply the vendor-supported update or fix once confirmed by Bentley.
- Restrict opening untrusted PDFs in vulnerable MicroStation installations.
- Use mail and web controls to reduce delivery of unexpected PDF files.
- Run MicroStation with least-privileged user accounts where operationally feasible.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Bentley MicroStation CONNECT installations and identify version 10.16.0.80.
- Confirm whether Bentley’s advisory remediation has been applied.
- Review document-ingestion workflows that route PDFs into MicroStation.
- Check endpoint telemetry for suspicious MicroStation process behavior after PDF opens.
- Verify user guidance covers untrusted PDFs and external project files.
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-125: 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 lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-46619 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 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H1.85.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
7.8HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.bentley.com/en/common-vulnerability-exposure/BE-2021-0003CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-22-206/CVE 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.
Out-of-bounds Read
Out-of-bounds Read represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.