Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-20315

medium Nessus Plugin ID 251899

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- A locking protection bypass flaw was found in some versions of gnome-shell as shipped within CentOS Stream 8, when the Application menu or Window list GNOME extensions are enabled. This flaw allows a physical attacker who has access to a locked system to kill existing applications and start new ones as the locked user, even if the session is still locked. (CVE-2021-20315)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 251899

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_20315.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/19/2025

Updated: 8/19/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.2

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 3.6

Temporal Score: 2.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-20315

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.1

Temporal Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:gnome-shell, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/18/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-20315

Detections

Analytics