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NTAP-20210909-0003 — CVE-2021-36770 Perl Vulnerability in NetApp Products

Published 2021-09-09 · Updated 2024-05-09 · Status: Final · Exploitation: Public · Severity: HIGH 7.8 · ONTAP affected: Yes

Official advisory: NTAP-20210909-0003 on security.netapp.com ↗. Affected versions, fixed releases, and workarounds live there — this page is a summary.

Product family: Cloud Backup / AltaVault / SteelStore · ONTAP · SnapCenter | ONTAP-relevant | highest CVSS: 7.8

CVEs in this advisory

CVE-2021-36770 — HIGH · CVSS 7.8 · site index

What the CVE records say

CVE-2021-36770 — Encode.pm, as distributed in Perl through 5.34.0, allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse Encode::ConfigLocal library (in the current working directory) that preempts dynamic module loading. Exploitation requires an unusual configuration, and certain 2021 versions of Encode.pm (3.05 through 3.11). This issue occurs because the || operator evaluates @INC in a scalar context, and thus @INC has only an integer value.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to disclosure of sensitive information, addition or modification of data, or Denial of Service (DoS).

Affected products

NetApp Cloud Backup (formerly AltaVault)
ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility
Snap Creator Framework

Official fixes

ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility — vendor fix ↗
Snap Creator Framework — 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.