What is CVE-2021-21981?

CVE-2021-21981 is a high-severity vulnerability in Broadcom VMware Nsx-T Data Center, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2021-04-19.

How severe is CVE-2021-21981?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Privilege escalation in Broadcom VMware Nsx-T Data Center

CVE-2021-21981

VMware NSX-T contains a privilege escalation vulnerability due to an issue with RBAC (Role based access control) role assignment. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with local guest user account to assign privileges higher than their own permission level.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

Published 2021-04-19 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (10.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 11th percentile — 10.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Broadcom VMware Nsx-T Data Center — versions 3.1.1
VMware Nsx-T — versions VMware NSX-T 3.1.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-269 — Improper Privilege Management

References

www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2021-0006.html (Patch, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-21981?: CVE-2021-21981 is a high-severity vulnerability in Broadcom VMware Nsx-T Data Center, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2021-04-19.
How severe is CVE-2021-21981?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.