Skip to content
Noroxi
NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

CVE-2021-27899: The Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Agents (formerly ObserveIT Agent) for MacOS and Linux perform improper validation of the ITM…

HighCVSS 7.4 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 29/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.63% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 50.8% of all records.
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. Special conditions such as timing or configuration are required.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

The Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Agents (formerly ObserveIT Agent) for MacOS and Linux perform improper validation of the ITM Server's certificate, which enables a remote attacker to intercept and alter these communications using a man-in-the-middle attack. All versions before 7.11.1 are affected. Agents for Windows and Cloud are not affected.

Published
Apr 6, 2021
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
0.6% · 50th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

29

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
29 / 40 · 7.4 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.6%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2021-27899

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

One daily email digest (06:00 UTC); connect a webhook for KEV listings and weaponized exploits every 10 minutes on paid plans, on the hour on the free plan.

Check your site's encryptionRun the SSL check

Your free account also gets you

  • CVE alerts: add the products and versions you run, get the new CVEs that affect them
  • Uptime monitoring: 1 site, instant email when it goes down
  • Add your domain: subdomains and takeover risk scanned every week (1 domain)
  • 10 scans an hour on the security tools, at most 30 a day (3 a day without an account), an API key and MCP
  • All your scans in one panel: findings, what changed in the last scan, a report per domain or per client (PDF, share link)
All free tools

Sign up with email · Have an account? Sign in

Free account, no card. Unfollow any time.

Don't want an account? Get "Exploited this week" by email every MondayDon't want an account? RSS feed for proofpoint records

Check your site's encryptionRun the SSL check

Is your version affected? Check it

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

We use this product, ask for help

Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
proofpointinsider threat management

Check your site's encryption

This vulnerability is about certificate validation or weak cryptography. The free SSL checker tests your certificate, enabled TLS versions and weak ciphers.

Run the SSL check

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • proofpoint insider threat management7.9.0 and later · before 7.9.3
  • proofpoint insider threat management7.10.0 and later · before 7.10.3
  • proofpoint insider threat management7.11.0 and later · before 7.11.1

Same product

proofpoint: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2020-8884rcdsvc in the Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Windows Agent (formerly ObserveIT Windows Agent) before 7.9 allows remote authenticated…
    36Monitor
  • CVE-2021-27900The Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Server (formerly ObserveIT Server) is missing an authorization check on several pages in the Web…
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2022-25294Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Agent for Windows relies on an inherently dangerous function that could enable an unprivileged local…
    31Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2021-22157Apr 6, 2021 · Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Server (formerly ObserveIT Server) before 7.11.1 allows stored XSS.
    25Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2021-22158Apr 6, 2021 · The Proofpoint Insider Threat Management Server (formerly ObserveIT Server) is vulnerable to XML external entity (XXE) injection in the Web…
    28Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2023-2818Jun 27, 2023 · ITM Windows Agent Insecure Filesystem Permissions
    22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • Special conditions such as timing or configuration are required.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
none
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-295 · Improper Certificate Validation

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

nvd-primary

Root cause

A certificate validation error is silently swallowed instead of terminating the connection. Often, code added for a test environment makes its way into production.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-295 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

kotlin
override fun checkServerTrusted(chain: Array<X509Certificate>, type: String) {  // Left empty for the test environment}

Fixed

kotlin
val client = OkHttpClient.Builder()  .certificatePinner(    CertificatePinner.Builder()      .add("api.sirius.example", "sha256/…")      .build()  ).build()

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records