Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-21239

MediumPublic PoC

Published: 21 January 2021

Published
21 January 2021
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0068 72.1th percentile
Risk Priority 13 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-21239 is a medium-severity Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature (CWE-347) vulnerability in Pysaml2 Project Pysaml2. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 27.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

PySAML2 is a pure python implementation of SAML Version 2 Standard. PySAML2 before 6.5.0 has an improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability. Users of pysaml2 that use the default CryptoBackendXmlSec1 backend and need to verify signed SAML documents are impacted.…

more

PySAML2 does not ensure that a signed SAML document is correctly signed. The default CryptoBackendXmlSec1 backend is using the xmlsec1 binary to verify the signature of signed SAML documents, but by default xmlsec1 accepts any type of key found within the given document. xmlsec1 needs to be configured explicitly to only use only _x509 certificates_ for the verification process of the SAML document signature. This is fixed in PySAML2 6.5.0.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

pysaml2 project
pysaml2
≤ 6.5.0
debian
debian linux
9.0

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-347

Requires verification of digital signatures using organization-approved certificates before installation, directly preventing improper verification of cryptographic signatures.

addresses: CWE-347

Component authenticity commonly depends on cryptographic signatures; the control enforces proper verification of those signatures.

addresses: CWE-347

PKI certificates under an approved policy require cryptographic signature verification on issuance and validation.

addresses: CWE-347

Requires cryptographic signatures on authoritative data and support for verifying the chain of trust.

addresses: CWE-347

Mandates verification of cryptographic signatures (e.g., DNSSEC RRSIG) on resolution responses, addressing missing or bypassed signature checks.

addresses: CWE-347

Integrity tools commonly rely on cryptographic signatures whose improper validation this weakness covers.

addresses: CWE-347

Authenticity validation commonly relies on cryptographic signature or certificate checks that this control enforces.

References