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CVE-2021-41189

Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator

7.2 HighFix available

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

2.06%Up 1.0 points since Oct 30, 2021
90%50%10%1%

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 HighCVSS: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 HighCVSS: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:

Record
GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS: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 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
9.0 HighAV: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 HighCVSS: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:

Record
GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS: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

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
org.dspace:dspace-api
Maven
7.0 up to 7.1
7.1
org.dspace:dspace-api
Maven
7.0 up to 7.1, plus listed versions
7.0-preview-1
7.1

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE 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

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