Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2021-38645

Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Microsoft / Azure Automation State Configuration · affected before DSC Agent versions: 2.71.1.25, 2.70.0.30, 3.0.0.3

Watch CVE-2021-38645 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
2.7%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2021-38645 is Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability affecting Microsoft Azure Automation State Configuration and 10 other products.

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Microsoft / Azure Automation State Configuration affected before dsc agent versions: 2.71.1.25, 2.70.0.30, 3.0.0.3.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Open Management Infrastructure Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Microsoft Affected
Azure Automation State Configuration, DSC Extension
Before DSC Agent versions: 2.71.1.25, 2.70.0.30, 3.0.0.3
Microsoft Affected
Azure Automation Update Management
Before OMS Agent for Linux GA v1.13.40-0
Microsoft Affected
Azure Diagnostics (LAD)
Before LAD v4.0.13 and LAD v3.0.135
Microsoft Affected
Azure Security Center
Before OMS Agent for Linux GA v1.13.40-0
Microsoft Affected
Azure Sentinel
Before OMS Agent for Linux GA v1.13.40-0
Microsoft Affected
Azure Stack Hub
Before Monitor, Update and Config Mgmnt 1.14.01
Microsoft Affected
Container Monitoring Solution
Before publication
Microsoft Affected
Log Analytics Agent
Before OMS Agent for Linux GA v1.13.40-0
Microsoft Affected
Open Management Infrastructure
Before OMI Version 1.6.8-1
Microsoft Affected
System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Before OMI version: 1.6.8-1
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
15 Sep 2021
Exploitation Reported
03 Nov 2021
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

microsoft cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2021-11-03 00:00 UTC
CVE 2026-08-10 15:31 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

2.7%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 7.8 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 4.6 Medium

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 15:31 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 11:24 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2021-38645

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2021-38645",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.02727,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}