Vulnerability Intelligence Report
CVE-2021-32086
An issue was discovered in Quest KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SMA) 11.0.273. It uses a hardcoded symmetric encryption key to encrypt secrets in the MySQL databases. (This key is not unique for each installation.) An attacker that gains access to the MySQL server or a backup files can decrypt the secrets. Often, the decrypted secrets can be used to escalate privileges within KACE, or gain privileged access to unrelated systems or services.
No Active Exploit Signals
CVSS Base Score
9.8
CRITICAL
Exploitability:3.9
Impact Score:5.9
EPSS Probability:0.10%
Executive Threat Verdict
Evaluating...
Evaluating Threat Landscape...
Assessing known weaponization, exploitation telemetry, and federal advisories.
Attack Surface
—
Authentication
—
Weaponization
—
SSVC Action
—
Weaknesses (CWE)
CWE-321 ↗CWE-321 Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key
Affected Products & Versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected Versions |
|---|---|---|
| quest | kace_systems_management_appliance | 11.0.273 |
References & Technical Advisories
No reference links found.
Threat Intelligence Signals
EPSS Score
0.096%
GitHub Advisory
Identity & Timeline
| Status | PUBLISHED |
| Assigning Authority | MITRE Corporation · N/A · USA |
| Reserved | 2021-05-06T00:00:00 |
| Published | 2026-07-27T00:00:00 |
| Last Updated | 2026-07-28T14:54:54 |
Community Chatter & Buzz