CVE-2021-38647 — omi
CRITICALCVE-2021-38647 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) remote code execution vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2021-11-17.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2021-38647.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-38647 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Affected Products
azure automation state configurationmicrosoftazure automation update managementmicrosoftazure diagnostics \(lad\)microsoftazure security centermicrosoftazure sentinelmicrosoftazure stack hubmicrosoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Open Management Infrastructure Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2021-38647, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
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 to detect CVE-2021-38647
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2021-38647 -u https://target- Template
- Microsoft Open Management Infrastructure - Remote Code Execution
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges.
- Remediation
- Updates for this vulnerability were published on GitHub on August 11, 2021.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (daffainfo, xstp), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-38647 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.