Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-32086

Exposed Creds in Quest Kace Systems Management Appliance 11.0.273

Exposed Creds
Published
27 July 2026
Modified
03 August 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0019 9th percentile
Risk Priority 69 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2021-32086 is a critical-severity Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key (CWE-321) vulnerability in Quest Kace Systems Management Appliance. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Private Keys (T1552.004); ranked at the 9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-12 (Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A04:2025 Cryptographic Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An issue was discovered in Quest KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SMA) 11.0.273. It uses a hardcoded symmetric encryption key to encrypt secrets in the MySQL databases. (This key is not unique for each installation.) An attacker that gains access to…

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the MySQL server or a backup files can decrypt the secrets. Often, the decrypted secrets can be used to escalate privileges within KACE, or gain privileged access to unrelated systems or services.

CWE(s)
CWE-321

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1552.004 Private Keys Credential Access
Adversaries may search for private key certificate files on compromised systems for insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552.001 Credentials In Files Credential Access
Adversaries may search local file systems and remote file shares for files containing insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-32958Shared CWE-321
CVE-2025-22463Shared CWE-321
CVE-2025-36326Shared CWE-321
CVE-2025-60250Shared CWE-321
CVE-2023-44318Shared CWE-321
CVE-2026-32324Shared CWE-321
CVE-2024-1258Shared CWE-321
CVE-2024-52881Shared CWE-321
CVE-2026-1442Shared CWE-321
CVE-2026-35019Shared CWE-321

Affected Assets

quest
kace systems management appliance
11.0.273

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SC-12 Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management good match

Requiring cryptographic keys to be established and managed according to defined requirements prevents developers from embedding static unchangeable keys.

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-SDLC activities such as code review and secret scanning directly prevent embedding static keys.

PR.DS-01 partial match
prevents

Data-at-rest protection policies require proper key management and therefore discourage hard-coded keys.

PR.DS-02 partial match
prevents

Data-in-transit protection similarly depends on non-hard-coded keys for encryption.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Configuration baselines and reviews can prohibit hard-coded keys in deployed artifacts.

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.

A.8.24 Use of cryptography partial match
prevents

Key-management controls that govern generation, rotation and protection of keys make the use of embedded hard-coded cryptographic keys less likely and easier to detect.

References