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🛡️ CVE-2021-43781 — invenio-app-rdm

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-862 OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Permissions not properly checked in Invenio-Drafts-Resources

Impact

Invenio-Drafts-Resources does not properly check permissions when a record is published. The vulnerability is exploitable in a default installation of InvenioRDM. An authenticated user is able via REST API calls to publish draft records of other users if they know the record identifier and the draft validates (e.g. all require fields filled out). An attacker is not able to modify the data in the record, and thus e.g. *cannot* change a record from restricted to public.

Details

The service's `publish()` method contains the following permission check:

```python

def publish(..):

self.require_permission(identity, "publish")

```

However, the record should have been passed into the permission check so that the need generators have access to e.g. the record owner.

```python

def publish(..):

self.require_permission(identity, "publish", record=record)

```

The bug is activated in Invenio-RDM-Records which has a need generator called `RecordOwners()`, which when no record is passed in defaults to allow any authenticated user:

```python

class RecordOwners(Generator):

def needs(self, record=None, **kwargs):

if record is None:

return [authenticated_user]

# ...

```

Patches

The problem is patched in Invenio-Drafts-Resources v0.13.7 and 0.14.6+, which is part of InvenioRDM v6.0.1 and InvenioRDM v7.0 respectively.

You can verify the version installed of Invenio-Drafts-Resources via PIP:

```console

cd ~/src/my-site

pipenv run pip freeze | grep invenio-drafts-resources

```

References

  • [Security policy](https://invenio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/community/security-policy.html)

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

  • Chat with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/8qatqBC

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability none.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Attack requirements: None — no deployment-specific condition has to hold.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: Passive — a victim action is involved, but not a deliberate one.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: None.

Weakness class

CVE-2021-43781 is classified as CWE-862: Missing Authorization. No authorisation check is performed before carrying out a restricted action.

Affected software

CVE-2021-43781 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • invenio-app-rdm (from 7.0.0.dev0 up to 7.0.0.dev5)
  • invenio-drafts-resources (from 0.14.0 up to 0.14.6)
  • invenio-rdm-records (from 0.33.0 up to 0.33.10)

Timeline and source

Published on 6 December 2021 and last revised on 8 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from OSV.

References

github.com (Web)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-862: Missing Authorization) in other software:

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
CWE CWE-862
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2021-12-06
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-07-08

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
invenio-app-rdm 7.0.0.dev0 7.0.0.dev5
invenio-drafts-resources 0.14.0 0.14.6
invenio-rdm-records 0.33.0 0.33.10

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