CVE-2021-42306 | Azure Active Directory Information Disclosure Vulnerability

An information disclosure vulnerability manifests when a user or an application uploads unprotected private key data as part of an authentication certificate keyCredential  on an Azure AD Application or Service Principal (which is not recommended). This vulnerability allows a user or service in the tenant with application read access to read the private key data that was added to the application. Azure AD addressed this vulnerability by preventing disclosure of any private key values added to the application. Microsoft has identified services that could manifest this vulnerability, and steps that customers should take to be protected. Refer to the FAQ section for more information. For more details on this issue, please refer to the MSRC Blog Entry.

Published: 2021-11-23 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-42306 is rated Moderate Risk (57.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.08%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2021-42306

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 8.24% 3.08% -5.16%
2 2026-04-17 8.53% 8.24% -0.29%
3 2026-02-17 8.53%

Full EPSS history (38 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-42306

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N 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: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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 5.2 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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: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.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-42306

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-42306

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft azure_active_directory < 2021-10-30 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:azure_active_directory:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft azure_active_site_recovery < 2021-11-01 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:azure_active_site_recovery:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft azure_automation < 2021-10-15 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:azure_automation:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft azure_migrate < 2021-11-02 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:azure_migrate:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-42306

cvelogic Threat Intelligence