CVE-2021-45083 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) Incorrect Default Permissions vulnerability in cobbler. A fix is available for cobbler — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Incorrect Default Permissions in Cobbler
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-45083 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
cobblerReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
An issue was discovered in Cobbler before 3.3.1. Files in /etc/cobbler are world readable. Two of those files contain some sensitive information that can be exposed to a local user who has non-privileged access to the server. The users.digest file contains the sha2-512 digest of users in a Cobbler local installation. In the case of an easy-to-guess password, it's trivial to obtain the plaintext string. The settings.yaml file contains secrets such as the hashed default password.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | cobbler | all versions | 3.3.1pip install --upgrade 'cobbler==3.3.1' |
Affected Products
cobblercobbler_projectfedorafedoraprojectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cobbler, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cobbler to 3.3.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-45083 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-45083 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.