CVE-2021-41773
Path Traversal in Oracle Instantis Enterprisetrack 17.1 … 17.3
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2021-41773 is a critical-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Oracle Instantis Enterprisetrack. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 0.0% 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.
A flaw exists in path normalization logic introduced in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49 that permits path traversal. The affected component is the core request-handling code responsible for mapping URLs to filesystem locations when Alias-like directives are in use. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2021-41773, carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8, and is classified under CWE-22.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can supply a crafted URL containing directory-traversal sequences to reach files outside the directories explicitly configured by Alias directives. When those files lack the default “require all denied” protection, the server returns their contents; if CGI scripting is also enabled for the aliased paths, the same traversal can be used to execute arbitrary commands, resulting in full remote code execution. The flaw is present only in version 2.4.49 and does not affect earlier releases.
Public exploit code for both path traversal and remote code execution has been published, and the issue is confirmed to have been exploited in the wild. The initial remediation shipped in 2.4.50 was later determined to be incomplete, leading to the follow-on vulnerability CVE-2021-42013.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2021-28781
Vulnerability Data
A flaw was found in a change made to path normalization in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49. An attacker could use a path traversal attack to map URLs to files outside the directories configured by Alias-like directives. If files outside of…
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these directories are not protected by the usual default configuration "require all denied", these requests can succeed. If CGI scripts are also enabled for these aliased pathes, this could allow for remote code execution. This issue is known to be exploited in the wild. This issue only affects Apache 2.4.49 and not earlier versions. The fix in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.50 was found to be incomplete, see CVE-2021-42013.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
Threat-Actor AttributionAI
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
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.
Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.
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.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
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.