+44 1865 950 828 Secure Your Business
Actively exploited

CVE-2021-21551 Dell dbutil Driver Insufficient Access Control Vulnerability

Dell dbutil driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial-of-service (DoS), or information disclosure.

From the CISA KEV catalogue version 2026.11.06, with Cybergen analysis. Updated 6 Nov 2026.

Our Assessment

Should You Worry?

Patch urgentlyCybergen assessment
  • CISA confirmed exploitation in the wild and added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 31 Mar 2022.
  • Rated High severity (CVSS 8.8, scored by Vendor).
  • It has been in the catalogue for 1,681 days. Systems still unpatched now have almost certainly been scanned for it.
The Vulnerability

What It Is

Dell dbutil_2_3.sys driver contains an insufficient access control vulnerability which may lead to escalation of privileges, denial of service, or information disclosure. Local authenticated user access is required.

Affected Versions

ProductVersions
Dell dbutil2.3

From the public CVE record, as supplied by the vendor. Always confirm against the vendor advisory.

From Watch to Action

What To Do Now

  1. 1

    Find it

    Search your asset inventory and external attack surface for Dell dbutil Driver. Include cloud images, appliances and anything a supplier runs for you.

    Attack Surface Management
  2. 2

    Fix it

    Apply updates per vendor instructions.

    Vulnerability Management
  3. 3

    Hunt for compromise

    If an affected system was reachable before you patched, assume it may have been hit. Check logs, new accounts, web shells and outbound connections from the date of exposure.

    Incident Response
  4. 4

    Prove it is fixed

    Rescan or test the system after patching. Upgrades that fail silently and forgotten secondary instances are common.

    Penetration Testing

Vendor Advisories

Regulation

The Compliance Clock

Cyber EssentialsRated high, so if it affects devices in your Cyber Essentials scope, the update must be installed within 14 days of the vendor releasing it.NIS2If exploitation causes a significant incident, essential and important entities owe their CSIRT an early warning within 24 hours and a notification within 72 hours.DORAFinancial entities must classify ICT incidents and send an initial notification for a major incident within strict deadlines, with exploited flaws a common cause.US federal (BOD 22-01)Federal civilian agencies had until 21 Apr 2022 to remediate. A sensible benchmark for everyone else.

General guidance, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on your sector, scope and jurisdiction.

Stay Ahead

More Exploited Dell Flaws

Get alerts for DellWe email you when a new Dell vulnerability is confirmed as exploited. Add more vendors on Threat Watch.

By signing up you agree to receive Threat Watch alerts. Unsubscribe at any time. See our Privacy Policy.

CVE-2026-22769Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VMs) Use of Hard-coded Credentials VulnerabilityAdded 18 Feb 2026

All 2 exploited Dell vulnerabilities

Not Sure If You Are Exposed?

Our attack surface and vulnerability teams can check your internet-facing estate for CVE-2021-21551 and every other exploited flaw on the list.

Check My Exposure
Evidence

Sources

  1. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue
  2. NVD: CVE-2021-21551
  3. CVE record: CVE-2021-21551
  4. FIRST EPSS
  5. dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000186019/dsa-2021-088-dell-client-platform-security-update-for-dell-dr
  6. packetstormsecurity.com/files/162604/Dell-DBUtil_2_3.sys-IOCTL-Memory-Read-Write.html
  7. packetstormsecurity.com/files/162739/DELL-dbutil_2_3.sys-2.3-Arbitrary-Write-Privilege-Escalation.ht