CVE-2021-47978 Exploit Db CVE debrief

Who should care

Organizations running ProcessMaker 3.5.4 or any deployment that may expose the affected file-handling path should care most. Security teams, application owners, and incident responders should also review any internet-facing or multi-user instances for exposure.

Technical summary

The record maps to CWE-98 and indicates insufficient validation of path traversal sequences in a file access path. An attacker does not need authentication, and the impact described in the supplied material is arbitrary local file disclosure rather than code execution or integrity loss.

Defensive priority

High for any exposed ProcessMaker 3.5.4 deployment; medium otherwise. Because the issue enables unauthenticated file disclosure, it should be prioritized alongside other externally reachable information-disclosure flaws, especially if the instance contains credentials, configuration files, or secrets.

Recommended defensive actions

• Confirm whether ProcessMaker 3.5.4 is deployed anywhere in your environment.
• Check vendor guidance and upgrade to a fixed version if one is available.
• Restrict exposure of ProcessMaker to trusted networks until remediation is complete.
• Review logs for requests containing directory traversal patterns or unusual file-access attempts.
• Inventory and rotate any secrets that may have been stored in files reachable from the affected application context.
• Validate that compensating controls such as network segmentation and authentication gateways are in place for all exposed instances.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based only on the supplied NVD record and the listed references. The source material identifies ProcessMaker 3.5.4, unauthenticated local file inclusion via path traversal, arbitrary file read impact, and CWE-98. No KEV entry was supplied, and no additional exploitation details are used beyond the provided references.

Official resources