CVE-2021-31585Public exploit

Administrator-to-root escalation via forged license and sudo

Published Jun 23, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024

Privilege escalation in Accellion Kiteworks before 7.3.1 allows remote authenticated users with web-admin access to obtain a root shell. The license verifier accepts a forged version 2 license under the weaker version 1 hash check, letting an administrator control the SSH password inputs. After SSH login as prometheus, a user-controlled parent directory permits replacement of a sudo-allowed admin.py path with a link to a root shell.

CVSS severity6.7
Medium
EPSS probability0.93%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Accellion Kiteworks before 7.3.1 allows remote authenticated users with web-admin access to obtain a root shell. The license verifier accepts a forged version 2 license under the weaker version 1 hash check, letting an administrator control the SSH password inputs. After SSH login as prometheus, a user-controlled parent directory permits replacement of a sudo-allowed admin.py path with a link to a root shell.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-31585
Published
Jun 23, 2021
Updated
Aug 3, 2024
Vendor
Unknown vendor
Product
Unknown product
Classifications
T1548.003
Attack vector
local
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jun 23, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 3, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Affected buildAffected product and version details are unavailable.

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.

Published CVSS scores

6.7NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.6NIST NVDAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

T1548.003Sudo and Sudo Caching

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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