Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-38289

HighPublic PoC

Published: 12 July 2022

Published
12 July 2022
Modified
07 April 2026
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0037 59.3th percentile
Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-38289 is a high-severity Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (CWE-732) vulnerability in Novastar Novaicare. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 40.7% 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

An issue has been discovered in Novastar-VNNOX-iCare Novaicare 7.16.0 that gives attacker privilege escalation and allows attackers to view corporate information and SMTP server details, delete users, view roles, and other unspecified impacts. NOTE: As of April 2026, the vendor…

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has officially decommissioned the affected legacy endpoints and associated services. The vulnerability is mitigated as the functional logic is no longer operational and the URLs have been removed from production.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

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

Affected Assets

novastar
novaicare
7.16.0

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-732

Procedures support proper permission assignment for critical resources through documented controls.

addresses: CWE-732

Attribute management for resources provides a mechanism to assign and maintain correct permissions based on security labels.

addresses: CWE-732

Prevents overly permissive assignments to critical resources by limiting to task needs.

addresses: CWE-732

Training policy covers correct permission assignment, reducing the ability to exploit incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.

addresses: CWE-732

Training on permission management reduces incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.

addresses: CWE-732

Audit logs and logging tools are critical resources whose protection requires correct permission assignments to block unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-732

Assessments review permission assignments on critical resources to confirm correctness, mitigating exploitation via incorrect permissions.

addresses: CWE-732

Certification includes checking that permissions on critical resources are correctly assigned.

References