CVE-2021-37942 — apm-agent-parent
HIGHCVE-2021-37942 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent. A fix is available for co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent — see the affected versions and patch details below.
APM Java Agent Local Privilege Escalation issue
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-37942 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent☕co.elastic.apm:elastic-apm-agentReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A local privilege escalation issue was found with the APM Java agent, where a user on the system could attach a malicious plugin to an application running the APM Java agent. By using this vulnerability, an attacker could execute code at a potentially higher level of permissions than their user typically has access to.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent | ≥ 1.18.0&&< 1.27.1 | 1.27.1co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent:1.27.1 |
| ☕Maven | co.elastic.apm:elastic-apm-agent | ≥ 1.18.0&&< 1.27.1 | 1.27.1co.elastic.apm:elastic-apm-agent:1.27.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update co.elastic.apm:apm-agent-parent to 1.27.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-37942 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-37942 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-37942. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-37942 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-37942 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.