{"id":"CVE-2021-41189","aliases":["EUVD-2021-2336","GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8"],"status":"published","title":"Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator","description":"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.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-12","score":0.02056,"percentile":0.81568,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-863"],"published":"2021-10-29T17:25:10Z","modified":"2026-10-20T14:29:27Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"Maven","package":"org.dspace:dspace-api","fixed_in":["7.1"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Maven","package":"org.dspace:dspace-api","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"7.0"},{"fixed":"7.1"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Maven","package":"org.dspace:dspace-api","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"7.0"},{"fixed":"7.1"}]}],"versions":["7.0","7.0-preview-1"]}],"products":[{"vendor":"dspace","product":"dspace"},{"vendor":"duraspace","product":"dspace"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/security/advisories/GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory","advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Exploit","Third Party Advisory","evidence","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/commit/277b499a5cd3a4f5eb2370513a1b7e4ec2a6e041","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Patch","Third Party Advisory","fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/commit/c3bea16ab911606e15ae96c97a1575e1ffb14f8a","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Patch","Third Party Advisory","fix","web"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41189","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8"},{"url":"https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace","tags":["package"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2021-41189","title":"Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2021-10-29T17:25:10Z","modified":"2024-08-04T03:08:31.307Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-863"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:32:59.105382Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2021-2336","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2021-10-29T17:25:10Z","modified":"2024-08-04T03:08:31Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-03T03:24:18.226903Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8","title":"Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator","description":"### Impact\nAny community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator.\n\nThis vulnerability only existed in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below.\n\n### Patches\nFix is included in [7.1](https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/releases/tag/dspace-7.1). Please upgrade to 7.1 at your earliest convenience.\n\n### Workarounds\nIn 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\n```\ncore.authorization.collection-admin.policies = false\ncore.authorization.community-admin.policies = false\ncore.authorization.community-admin.collection.workflows = false\n```\nOnce upgraded to 7.1, these settings can be safely reverted to the default values of `true`.\n\n### References\nDiscovered during investigation of https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928\n\n### For more information\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory:\n* Email us at security@dspace.org\n","status":"published","published":"2021-11-01T19:18:16Z","modified":"2023-02-01T05:06:24Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-863"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:36:39.086869Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2021-41189","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2021-10-29T18:15:08.167Z","modified":"2026-06-17T04:08:03.51Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"},{"version":"2.0","score":9,"vector":"AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-863"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:07:00.549994Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2021-41189","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2021-10-29T18:15:08.167Z","modified":"2026-10-20T14:29:27.600022658Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:44:21.249056Z"},{"id":"GHSA-cf2j-vf36-c6w8","title":"Communities and collections administrators can escalate their privilege up to system administrator","description":"### Impact\nAny community or collection administrator can escalate their permission up to become system administrator.\n\nThis vulnerability only existed in 7.0 and does not impact 6.x or below.\n\n### Patches\nFix is included in [7.1](https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/releases/tag/dspace-7.1). Please upgrade to 7.1 at your earliest convenience.\n\n### Workarounds\nIn 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\n```\ncore.authorization.collection-admin.policies = false\ncore.authorization.community-admin.policies = false\ncore.authorization.community-admin.collection.workflows = false\n```\nOnce upgraded to 7.1, these settings can be safely reverted to the default values of `true`.\n\n### References\nDiscovered during investigation of https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7928\n\n### For more information\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory:\n* Email us at security@dspace.org\n","status":"published","published":"2021-11-01T19:18:16Z","modified":"2026-07-08T06:27:55.812737462Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.2,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-863"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:44.927642Z"}]}}