Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-21311

SSRF in Adminer 4.0.0 – 4.7.9

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCSSRF
Published
11 February 2021
Modified
24 October 2025
KEV Added
29 September 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.90 99.8th percentile
Risk Priority 80 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2021-21311 is a high-severity SSRF (CWE-918) vulnerability in Adminer Adminer. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Adminer is an open-source database management tool distributed as a single PHP file. It is affected by a server-side request forgery vulnerability in versions 4.0.0 through 4.7.8 that impacts users of builds bundling all drivers, such as adminer.php. The flaw is identified as CWE-918 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.2.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can send crafted requests to the Adminer instance to induce the server into making arbitrary outbound connections, resulting in limited impacts to confidentiality and integrity in the server's security context.

The issue is resolved in version 4.7.9. The project has published a security advisory and corresponding code commit, while Debian has issued an LTS announcement and the package metadata is tracked on Packagist to support patching.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adminer is an open-source database management in a single PHP file. In adminer from version 4.0.0 and before 4.7.9 there is a server-side request forgery vulnerability. Users of Adminer versions bundling all drivers (e.g. `adminer.php`) are affected. This is fixed…

more

in version 4.7.9.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
29 September 2025

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2021-40438Same product: Debian Debian Linuxboth on KEV
CVE-2023-36661Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2021-26855Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2021-21973Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2022-41040Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2026-20230Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2023-41763Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2021-22986Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2019-9621Shared CWE-918both on KEV
CVE-2020-7796Shared CWE-918both on KEV

Affected Assets

adminer
adminer
4.0.0 — 4.7.9
debian
debian linux
9.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.3.6
  • V1.5.3
  • V5.3.2
  • V10.4.7

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-918

Penetration testing attempts server-side requests to internal resources, identifying SSRF weaknesses for remediation.

addresses: CWE-918

Outbound connections to external resources can be monitored and limited at the boundary, reducing SSRF impact.

addresses: CWE-918

Validates server-side URLs and resource references to block SSRF attempts.

addresses: CWE-918

Detects server-side request forgery through monitoring of unexpected outbound connections.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly include input validation and destination allow-listing that prevent SSRF.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of web applications and services can detect anomalous outbound requests indicative of SSRF.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record SSRF flaws in web applications.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Network segmentation and egress controls can limit the damage from successful SSRF requests.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

prevents

Operational threat data describing SSRF campaigns can be used to tighten outbound-request allow-lists and detection rules before attackers exploit them.

References