CVE-2021-21686

mediumpriority · track · 33EPSS 0.020 · 80 %ileEURUUS
grimoire priorityP3 · Track
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
1.98% (80th) EPSS
CVSS 5.8 · medium
Is it mine?
14 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
5 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · fstec_bdu · osv

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

File path filters in the agent-to-controller security subsystem of Jenkins 2.318 and earlier, LTS 2.303.2 and earlier do not canonicalize paths, allowing operations to follow symbolic links to outside allowed directories.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

9.0
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–critical · 5.8–9

v2.05.8mediumAV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:Nprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 8.6 · impact 4.9
v3.18.1highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Nprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 2.8 · impact 5.2
v3.18.1highAV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Nsecondary · FSTEC (BDU) RU
v3.19criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · OSV
v3.17.4highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N/E:Usecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

03

affected products (14)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

04

advisories (2)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • GHSA-4g38-hrm4-rg94Multiple vulnerabilities allow bypassing path filtering of agent-to-controller access control in Jenkins2022-05-24ghsa · osvUS

    The agent-to-controller security subsystem limits which files on the Jenkins controller can be accessed by agent processes. Multiple vulnerabilities in the file path filtering implementation of Jenkins 2.318 and earlier, LTS 2.303.2 and earlier allow agent processes to read and write arbitrary files on the Jenkins controller file system, and obtain some information about Jenkins controller file systems. SECURITY-2444 / CVE-2021-21686: File path filters do not canonicalize paths, allowing operations to follow symbolic links to outside allowed directories. We expect that most of these vulnerabilities have been present since [SECURITY-144 was addressed in the 2014-10-30 security advisory](https://www.jenkins.io/security/advisory/2014-10-30/). Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3 addresses these security vulnerabilities. SECURITY-2444 / CVE-2021-21686: File path filters canonicalize paths, preventing operations from following symbolic links to outside allowed directories. As some common operations are now newly subject to access control, it is expected that plugins sending commands from agents to the controller may start failing. Additionally, the newly introduced path canonicalization means that instances using a custom builds directory ([Java system property jenkins.model.Jenkins.buildsDir](https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/managing/system-properties/#jenkins-model-jenkins-buildsdir)) or partitioning `JENKINS_HOME` using symbolic links may fail access control checks. See [the documentation](https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/security/controller-isolation/agent-to-controller/#file-access-rules) for how to customize the configuration in case of problems. If you are unable to immediately upgrade to Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3, you can install the [Remoting Security Workaround Plugin](https://www.jenkins.io/redirect/remoting-security-workaround/). It will prevent all agent-to-controller file access using `FilePath` APIs. Because it is more restrictive than Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3, more plugins are incompatible with it. Make sure to read the plugin documentation before installing it.

  • BIT-jenkins-2021-216862024-03-06vendor · osvUS

    File path filters in the agent-to-controller security subsystem of Jenkins LTS 2.303.2 and earlier do not canonicalize paths, allowing operations to follow symbolic links to outside allowed directories.

05

also known as (6)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

06

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

published 2021-11-04modified 2026-06-17
08

references (19)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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