CVE-2021-41189
Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator
DSpace is an open source turnkey repository application. In version 7.0, any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator. This vulnerability only exists in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below. This issue is patched in version 7.1. As a workaround, users of 7.0 may temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- High
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
7.2
Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator
DSpace is an open source turnkey repository application. In version 7.0, any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator. This vulnerability only exists in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below. This issue is patched in version 7.1. As a workaround, users of 7.0 may temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings.
- Record
CVE-2021-41189- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-2336
7.2
DSpace is an open source turnkey repository application. In version 7.0, any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator. This vulnerability only exists in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below. This issue is patched in version 7.1. As a workaround, users of 7.0 may temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings.
- Record
EUVD-2021-2336- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
7.2
Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator
Impact
Any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator.
This vulnerability only existed in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below.
Patches
Fix is included in 7.1. Please upgrade to 7.1 at your earliest convenience.
Workarounds
In 7.0, temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings, i.e. set the following properties in your local.cfg / dspace.cfg file
core.authorization.collection-admin.policies = false
core.authorization.community-admin.policies = false
core.authorization.community-admin.collection.workflows = false
Once upgraded to 7.1, these settings can be safely reverted to the default values of true.
References
Discovered during investigation of https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Email us at [email protected]
- Record
GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
7.2
DSpace is an open source turnkey repository application. In version 7.0, any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator. This vulnerability only exists in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below. This issue is patched in version 7.1. As a workaround, users of 7.0 may temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings.
- Record
CVE-2021-41189- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 9.0 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
7.2
DSpace is an open source turnkey repository application. In version 7.0, any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator. This vulnerability only exists in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below. This issue is patched in version 7.1. As a workaround, users of 7.0 may temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings.
- Record
CVE-2021-41189- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
7.2
Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator
Impact
Any community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator.
This vulnerability only existed in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below.
Patches
Fix is included in 7.1. Please upgrade to 7.1 at your earliest convenience.
Workarounds
In 7.0, temporarily disable the ability for community or collection administrators to manage permissions or workflows settings, i.e. set the following properties in your local.cfg / dspace.cfg file
core.authorization.collection-admin.policies = false
core.authorization.community-admin.policies = false
core.authorization.community-admin.collection.workflows = false
Once upgraded to 7.1, these settings can be safely reverted to the default values of true.
References
Discovered during investigation of https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Email us at [email protected]
- Record
GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
org.dspace:dspace-apiMaven |
7.0 up to 7.1 | 7.1 |
org.dspace:dspace-apiMaven |
7.0 up to 7.1, plus listed versions 7.0-preview-1 |
7.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2021-41189 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.2) in Dspace, published October 29, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 2.06%, the 81st percentile. Fixed in org.dspace:dspace-api 7.1.
References
github.com/DSpace/DSpace/security/advisories/GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928
github.com/DSpace/DSpace/commit/277b499a5cd3a4f5eb2370513a1b7e4ec2a6e041
github.com/DSpace/DSpace/commit/c3bea16ab911606e15ae96c97a1575e1ffb14f8a
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41189
github.com/advisories/GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
github.com/DSpace/DSpace