Detections
Analytics

Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-21289

high Nessus Plugin ID 259567

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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.

 - Mechanize is an open-source ruby library that makes automated web interaction easy. In Mechanize from version 2.0.0 and before version 2.7.7 there is a command injection vulnerability. Affected versions of mechanize allow for OS commands to be injected using several classes' methods which implicitly use Ruby's Kernel.open method. Exploitation is possible only if untrusted input is used as a local filename and passed to any of these calls: Mechanize::CookieJar#load, Mechanize::CookieJar#save_as, Mechanize#download, Mechanize::Download#save, Mechanize::File#save, and Mechanize::FileResponse#read_body. This is fixed in version 2.7.7. (CVE-2021-21289)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-21289

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 259567

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_21289.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/30/2025

Updated: 8/30/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.3

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.6

Temporal Score: 5.6

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-21289

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.3

Temporal Score: 7.2

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ruby-mechanize, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/2/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-21289