How severe is CVE-2021-44515?

CVE-2021-44515 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2021-44515?

CVE-2021-44515 affects the following products: zohocorp manageengine desktop central.

How do I patch CVE-2021-44515?

Apply the zohocorp manageengine desktop central security patch or hotfix for CVE-2021-44515 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.

How do I detect CVE-2021-44515 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every zohocorp manageengine desktop central deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-44515 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2021-44515 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 4 known exploit references for CVE-2021-44515, including 4 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-44515?

CVE-2021-44515 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 99.9%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2021-44515 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2021-44515 (Zoho Desktop Central Authentication Bypass Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-12-10. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2021-12-24. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2021-44515?

CVE-2021-44515 affects zohocorp manageengine desktop central. Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2021-44515?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2021-44515, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2021-44515 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-44515 was published on December 12, 2021 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🛡️

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2021-44515 — Manageengine Desktop Central

CRITICAL

CVE-2021-44515 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) remote code execution vulnerability in zohocorp manageengine desktop central. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-12-10) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass, leading to remote code execution on the server, as exploited in the wild in December 2021. For Enterprise builds…

Published

Dec 12, 2021

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

1 product

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

4 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 22, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-12-10. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2021-12-24.
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-2021-44515.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

99.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-44515 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 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass, leading to remote code execution on the server, as exploited in the wild in December 2021. For Enterprise builds 10.1.2127.17 and earlier, upgrade to 10.1.2127.18. For Enterprise builds 10.1.2128.0 through 10.1.2137.2, upgrade to 10.1.2137.3. For MSP builds 10.1.2127.17 and earlier, upgrade to 10.1.2127.18. For MSP builds 10.1.2128.0 through 10.1.2137.2, upgrade to 10.1.2137.3.

Affected Products

1 product · 4 configurations

Application

manageengine desktop centralzohocorp

≥ 10.1.2128.0 && < 10.1.2137.3

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass…

tenable.comAPIDec 2021

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass…

nvd.nist.govNVDDec 2021

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass…

manageengine.comNVDDec 2021

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central is vulnerable to authentication bypass…

cisa.govCISADec 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vendor / appliance

Detect
Inventory every zohocorp manageengine desktop central deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Fix
Apply the zohocorp manageengine desktop central security patch or hotfix for CVE-2021-44515 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

How to detect CVE-2021-44515

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2021-44515 -u https://target

Template: Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central - Remote Code Execution
Severity: critical
Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system.
Remediation: For Enterprise builds 10.1.2127.17 and earlier, upgrade to 10.1.2127.18. For Enterprise builds 10.1.2128.0 through 10.1.2137.2, upgrade to 10.1.2137.3. For MSP builds 10.1.2127.17 and earlier, upgrade to 10.1.2127.18. For MSP builds 10.1.2128.0 through 10.1.2137.2, upgrade to 10.1.2137.3.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (Adam Crosser), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2021-44515 being exploited in your environment?

Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.

Protect my workloads How runtime protection works

CVE-2021-44515 — Manageengine Desktop Central

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Description

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How to detect CVE-2021-44515

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2021-44515 being exploited in your environment?