Authenticated privilege escalation via merged REST roles
Published Jan 26, 2024 · Updated May 29, 2025
Privilege escalation in NetApp ONTAP 9 affected releases allows remote authenticated users to exceed assigned REST API roles. The REST authorization path incorrectly merges privileges when one authenticated user controls multiple remote accounts assigned different roles, permitting requests under unintended permissions. Exploitation requires those differing-role accounts and enables limited configuration or metric access and limited setting changes, including changes that interrupt service.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in NetApp ONTAP 9 affected releases allows remote authenticated users to exceed assigned REST API roles. The REST authorization path incorrectly merges privileges when one authenticated user controls multiple remote accounts assigned different roles, permitting requests under unintended permissions. Exploitation requires those differing-role accounts and enables limited configuration or metric access and limited setting changes, including changes that interrupt service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-21985
- Published
- Jan 26, 2024
- Updated
- May 29, 2025
- Vendor
- NetApp
- Product
- ONTAP
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1068
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 26, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 29, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=9.0 <9.9.1P18
- Affected versionversion=9.10.1 <9.10.1P16
- Affected versionversion=9.11.1 <9.11.1P13
- Affected versionversion=9.12.1 <9.12.1P10
- Affected versionversion=9.13.1 <9.13.1P4
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo