Cybersecurity specialists report the detection of a critical vulnerability in Trend Micro ServerProtect, one of the company’s most important security solutions. According to the report, the successful exploitation of this vulnerability would allow malicious hackers to evade security controls on the affected system.

Tracked as CVE-2021-36745, this flaw exists due to an error in the ServerProtect authentication process, which could be exploited by an unauthenticated remote threat actor in order to access the system without authorization.

This is a highly severe vulnerability and received a score of 8.5/10 according to the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). Experts mention that the successful exploitation of the flaw would allow the total compromise of the affected system.

The vulnerability resides in the following instances and versions of ServerProtect:

  • ServerProtect v5.8, v6.0
  • ServerProtect for Storage (SPFS) v6.0
  • ServerProtect for EMC Celerra (SPEMC) v5.8
  • ServerProtect for Network Appliance Filers (SPNAF) v5.8
  • ServerProtect for Microsoft Windows / Novell Netware (SPNT) v5.8

While the vulnerability is considered critical and could be exploited by unauthenticated remote malicious hackers, cybersecurity experts have not detected active exploitation attempts. Still, users of affected deployments are encouraged to install the necessary updates as soon as possible.

To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.