CVE-2021-21551: Dell dbutil Driver Insufficient Access Control Vulnerability

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Name

Dell dbutil Driver Insufficient Access Control Vulnerability

Vendor

Dell

Product

dbutil Driver

Added to the catalog

2022-03-31

Due date for US federal agencies

2022-04-21

Weaknesses

CWE-782

Catalog version

2026.10.30

Dell dbutil driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial-of-service (DoS), or information disclosure.

Required action (CISA)

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Ransomware use: CISA does not mark known use of this vulnerability in ransomware campaigns.

Links in CISA's notes

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-21551

Read on 2026-11-02T23:39:54.475Z under licence cisa-kev-cc0@b0067899 from https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

NVD analysis

Status

Analyzed

Published

2021-05-04T16:15:07.867

Last modified

2026-06-17T03:35:45.760

Weaknesses

CWE-782, NVD-CWE-Other

Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.

References

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerability (Mitigation, Vendor Advisory)
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerability (Mitigation, Vendor Advisory)
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-21551 (US Government Resource)

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Read on 2026-11-02T23:41:51.476Z under licence nvd-api-terms-of-use@ff2a5288 from https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2021-21551

CVE record

Assigner

dell

State

PUBLISHED

Published

2021-05-04T15:15:21.388Z

Updated

2025-10-21T23:25:47.458Z

Problem types

CWE-782: Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access Control

Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.

References

• https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-driver-insufficient-access-control-vulnerability
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.html

Read on 2026-11-03T01:06:04.329Z under licence cve-terms-of-use@81bfa2f3 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/main/cves/2021/21xxx/CVE-2021-21551.json

Detection rules (SigmaHQ)

SigmaHQ rules whose own tags name this CVE. Each rule page shows the rule as its author published it.

• Vulnerable Dell BIOS Update Driver Load (status deprecated, level high)
• PUA - Process Hacker Driver Load (status test, level high)
• Vulnerable Lenovo Driver Load (status deprecated, level high)

Defensive techniques (MITRE D3FEND)

D3FEND maps these defensive techniques to the weakness (CWE) that NVD lists for this CVE, through the digital artifacts the weakness affects. D3FEND does not say they stop this vulnerability.

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