CVE-2021-41598
UI misrepresentation of granted permissions in GitHub Enterprise Server leading to unauthorized access to user
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_P
Description
A UI misrepresentation vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed more permissions to be granted during a GitHub App's user-authorization web flow than was displayed to the user during approval. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to create a GitHub App on the instance and have a user authorize the application through the web authentication flow. All permissions being granted would properly be shown during the first authorization, but if the user later updated the set of repositories the app was installed on after the GitHub App had configured additional user-level permissions, those additional permissions would not be displayed, leading to more permissions being granted than the user potentially intended. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.3 and was fixed in versions 3.2.5, 3.1.13, 3.0.21. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.2% · top 33% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Weakness
Affected products
GitHub · GitHub Enterprise Server
- affected 3.0 – < 3.0.21
- affected 3.1 – < 3.1.13
- affected 3.2 – < 3.2.5
References (3)
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server%403.0/admin/release-notes#3.0.21 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server%403.1/admin/release-notes#3.1.13 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server%403.2/admin/release-notes#3.2.5 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2021-41598)Record last updated .