CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-40857 — Auerswald COMpact 5500R devices before 8.2B allow Privilege Escalation via the passwd=1 substring

High CVSS 8.8

Auerswald COMpact 5500R devices before 8.2B allow Privilege Escalation via the passwd=1 substring.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2021-12-13
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-522

Affected products

  • auerswald / compact_5500r_ip_firmware
  • auerswald / compact_5200r_ip_firmware
  • auerswald / compact_5000r_ip_firmware
  • auerswald / compact_4000_ip_firmware
  • auerswald / commander_6000r_ip_firmware
  • auerswald / commander_6000rx_ip_firmware

Showing 6 representative product identities from 10 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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