CVE-2021-29441

Medium PUBLISHED

Authentication bypass

alibaba · nacos

Not yet in CISA KEV

Exploited in the wild PoC available

Recommended Action

Treat as actively exploited. Assess exposure, apply compensating controls where patching is delayed, and monitor for abuse.

Confidence
Medium
Exploitation Status
Exploited in the wild
Observed in Sensors
No
Attempts (30d)
Unique Attacker IPs
CISA KEV
Not yet in CISA KEV
CVSS / EPSS
8.6 High

At a Glance

Nacos is a platform designed for dynamic service discovery and configuration and service management. In Nacos before version 1.4.1, when configured to use authentication (-Dnacos.core.auth.enabled=true) Nacos uses the AuthFilter servlet filter to enforce authentication. This filter has a backdoor that enables Nacos servers to bypass this filter and therefore skip authentication checks. This mechanism relies on the user-agent HTTP header so it can be easily spoofed. This issue may allow any user to carry out any administrative tasks on the Nacos server.

nuclei_scanner
Published
Apr 27, 2021
First Seen
Jun 28, 2025
CVSS
8.6 High
EPSS
Remote Low complexity No user interaction Unauthenticated

Recommended Actions

  • Treat as actively exploited. Assess exposure, apply compensating controls where patching is delayed, and monitor for abuse.
  • Check enrichment artifacts for scanner coverage and available PoCs before rolling remediation validation.
  • Use the Pro API to automate enrichment, telemetry, and workflow delivery for VM, SOC, and CTI pipelines.