CVE-2021-32801 | Exceptions may have logged Encryption-at-Rest key content in Nextcloud server

Nextcloud server is an open source, self hosted personal cloud. In affected versions logging of exceptions may have resulted in logging potentially sensitive key material for the Nextcloud Encryption-at-Rest functionality. It is recommended that the Nextcloud Server is upgraded to 20.0.12, 21.0.4 or 22.1.0. If upgrading is not an option users are advised to disable system logging to resolve this issue until such time that an upgrade can be performed Note that ff you do not use the Encryption-at-Rest functionality of Nextcloud you are not affected by this bug.

Published: 2021-09-07 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-32801 is rated Low Risk (27/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.23%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-32801

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.06% 0.23% +0.17%
2 2026-03-04 0.04% 0.06% +0.02%
3 2026-03-01 0.04%

Full EPSS history (25 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-32801

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-32801

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-32801

vendor priority summary link
gentoo low CVE-2021-32801: 1 GLSA(s) (202208-17), 1 atom(s) (www-apps/nextcloud); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-32801

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-32801

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
nextcloud nextcloud_server < 20.0.12 cpe:2.3:a:nextcloud:nextcloud_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
nextcloud nextcloud_server >= 21.0.0, < 21.0.4 cpe:2.3:a:nextcloud:nextcloud_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
nextcloud nextcloud_server >= 22.0.0, < 22.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:nextcloud:nextcloud_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-32801

cvelogic Threat Intelligence