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CVE-2021-36934

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This is a free service offered by Red Hot Cyber to the community. It allows you to view, on a single page, information about a single CVE from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States of America, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) regarding the EPSS score and percentile, data from the KEV catalog of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well as selected resources from Red Hot Cyber and other international sources.

National Vulnerability Database Information

Description: An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists because of overly permissive Access Control Lists (ACLs) on multiple system files, including the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. An attacker must have the ability to execute code on a victim system to exploit this vulnerability. After installing this security update, you must manually delete all shadow copies of system files, including the SAM database, to fully mitigate this vulnerabilty. Simply installing this security update will not fully mitigate this vulnerability. See KB5005357- Delete Volume Shadow Copies.

CVSS Base Score: 7.8 (v3.1)

The CVSS Base Score is a score from 0 to 10 that represents the intrinsic severity of a vulnerability. A higher score indicates greater severity.

Value
0.02.55.07.510.0
Published on: 07/22/2021 07:15:11
Last modified: 08/10/2026 20:19:00
NIST: CVE source from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)

CVSS Metrics Details

  • Base Severity: HIGH
  • Vector String: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
  • Attack Vector: LOCAL
  • Attack Complexity: LOW
  • Privileges Required: LOW
  • User Interaction: NONE
  • Scope: UNCHANGED
  • Confidentiality Impact: HIGH
  • Integrity Impact: HIGH
  • Availability Impact: HIGH

FIRST Information

EPSS Score: 0.6725

The EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a score from 0 to 1 that indicates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the real world in the next 30 days. A higher value indicates a greater likelihood of exploitation.

Value
0.00.250.50.751.0

Percentile: 0.9924

The Percentile indicates how much higher this vulnerability's EPSS score is compared to all other vulnerabilities in the EPSS database. For example, a percentile of 0.90 (90%) means that 90% of vulnerabilities have an EPSS score equal to or lower than the current one.

Value
0.00.250.50.751.0

*Data updated as of: 2026-08-14


CISA Information (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

The CISA KEV Catalog lists vulnerabilities that have been actively exploited in the real world. If a CVE is present in this catalog, it indicates that the threat is immediate and mitigation should be a top priority.

CVE CVE-2021-36934 IS PRESENT in the CISA KEV Catalog!

  • Vulnerability Name: Microsoft Windows SAM Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
  • Short Description: If a Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) shadow copy of the system drive is available, users can read the SAM file which would allow any user to escalate privileges to SYSTEM level.
  • Date Added to KEV: 02/10/2022
  • Vendor/Product: Microsoft / Windows
  • Required Action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
  • Due Date: 02/24/2022

Articles published on Red Hot Cyber


NVD References

Exploit PoC from GitHub