CVE-2021-36782 | Rancher: Plaintext storage and exposure of credentials in Rancher API and cluster.management.cattle.io object

Exp

A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows authenticated Cluster Owners, Cluster Members, Project Owners, Project Members and User Base to use the Kubernetes API to retrieve plaintext version of sensitive data. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.16; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.7.

Published: 2022-09-07 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-36782 is rated High Exploit Risk (79.4/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.90%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2021-36782

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-36782

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 79.61% 2.90% -76.70%
2 2025-12-28 79.21% 79.61% +0.40%
3 2025-12-27 — 79.21% —

Full EPSS history (34 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-36782

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.9 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.1 6.0 [email protected]
9.9 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.1 6.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-36782

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-36782

GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: go — Rancher API and cluster.management.cattle.io object vulnerable to plaintext storage and exposure of credentials

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-36782

vendor priority summary link
suse critical — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-36782/

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-36782

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
suse rancher >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16 cpe:2.3:a:suse:rancher:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse rancher >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.7 cpe:2.3:a:suse:rancher:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-36782

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1193988 Exploit Issue Tracking Mitigation Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/rancher/rancher/security/advisories/GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f Exploit Mitigation Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence