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NTAP-20210528-0009 — CVE-2021-20197 GNU Binutils Vulnerability in NetApp Products

Published 2021-05-28 · Updated 2024-05-01 · Status: Final · Exploitation: Public · Severity: MEDIUM 6.3 · ONTAP affected: Yes

Official advisory: NTAP-20210528-0009 on security.netapp.com ↗. Affected versions, fixed releases, and workarounds live there — this page is a summary.

Product family: Brocade SAN firmware · Cloud Backup / AltaVault / SteelStore · SolidFire / NetApp HCI · ONTAP | ONTAP-relevant | highest CVSS: 6.3

CVEs in this advisory

CVE-2021-20197 — MEDIUM · CVSS 6.3 · site index

What the CVE records say

CVE-2021-20197 — There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to disclosure of sensitive information or addition or modification of data.

Affected products

Brocade Fabric Operating System Firmware
NetApp Cloud Backup (formerly AltaVault)
NetApp Cloud Backup OST Plug-in (formerly AltaVault OST Plug-in)
NetApp SolidFire & HCI Management Node
ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility

Official fixes

NetApp SolidFire & HCI Management Node — vendor fix ↗
NetApp SolidFire & HCI Management Node — vendor fix ↗
ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility — vendor fix ↗

What to do

Check the affected products listed above against the official advisory's affected-versions table — that is where the exact ONTAP 9 release, ONTAP tool, or management product versions are named.
If affected and a fixed release exists, plan the upgrade — see the ONTAP upgrade runbook.
If exploitation is listed as "active", treat remediation as urgent and review exposure (management LIFs, ONTAP S3, SnapMirror endpoints).
Harden in parallel: security hardening baseline and ransomware protection on ONTAP.