Security Resilience

CVE-2021-40870

Path Traversal in Aviatrix Controller 6.2 – 6.2.2043

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCPath Traversal
Published
13 September 2021
Modified
10 November 2025
KEV Added
18 January 2022
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 0.93 99.8th percentile
Risk Priority 97 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2021-40870 is a critical-severity Relative Path Traversal (CWE-23) vulnerability in Aviatrix Controller. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); 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.

The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-40870 is an unrestricted file upload flaw that permits dangerous file types and leads to arbitrary code execution through directory traversal. It affects the Aviatrix Controller in all 6.x releases prior to 6.5-1804.1922 and is assigned CWE-23 with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8.

An unauthenticated attacker with network access can upload a malicious file and traverse directories to place and execute arbitrary code on the controller, resulting in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact without any required user interaction.

Public advisories and release notes from Aviatrix dated 9 September 2021, along with the TradeCraft advisory TC-2021-0002, direct customers to apply the fixed version 6.5-1804.1922 or later; exploit code demonstrating the issue has been published on Packet Storm.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An issue was discovered in Aviatrix Controller 6.x before 6.5-1804.1922. Unrestricted upload of a file with a dangerous type is possible, which allows an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary code via directory traversal.

CWE(s)
CWE-23
KEV Date Added
18 January 2022

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-50603Same product: Aviatrix Controllerboth on KEV
CVE-2026-34926Shared CWE-23both on KEV
CVE-2025-64446Shared CWE-23both on KEV
CVE-2025-60020Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-53609Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-32137Shared CWE-23
CVE-2024-8551Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-7619Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-59776Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-23410Shared CWE-23

Affected Assets

aviatrix
controller
6.2 — 6.2.2043 · 6.3 — 6.3.2490 · 6.4 — 6.4.2838

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)
  • V5.3.2

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 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that prevent relative traversal.

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.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References